


On the Hook

by olxmpxs



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - High School, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, F/M, Jasiper, Originally Posted on Tumblr, You Have Been Warned, also hazel isn't around for the first half, also i spent about a day making this plot, but i promise she makes an apperance, caleo - Freeform, i wrote this instead of doing a research paper, it's cause she's a baby and is still too young for high school, percabeth, solangelo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2019-05-04 14:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 46,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14595522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olxmpxs/pseuds/olxmpxs
Summary: The year is 1956.The Olympians are a notorious group of individuals that run Manhattan and know the ins and outs of the city. Percy Jackson, is one of the more well known faces in the group thanks to his well known activity for causing chaos and havoc through the streets of Manhattan. Despite the fact he recently just turned 18 years old, Percy has the most power in his hands and can order his men at any moment to kill someone who disturbs him.Annabeth Chase refuses to associate with boys. After a messy break up that her best friend had to suffer through, Annabeth found it her duty to make sure that she and a talented group of young woman who plan to achieve the highest scores possible at their school and graduate high school at the top of their class and attend the most prestigious Ivy League schools in the nation.After being assigned to give individual tutoring sessions to the notorious Percy Jackson, their lives become intertwined and Annabeth is now forced to learn that the world is simply not as she had been thought out to imagine it looked like. Annabeth learns what it means to be part of The Olympians and Percy learns what it means to be on the hook.





	1. Paper Airplane Pilots

Math was one of the more difficult subjects in school to most people. The numbers seemed to mix with each other and the letters that now combined with the equations just always seemed to make students brains hurt. Some students easily understood the problem that was given before them, able to stay up during the class lecture in learning about how to solve these sorts of problems, Annabeth Chase was one of them.

“Who would like to come up here and solve this problem?” the teacher, Mr. Brunner asked, looking back at the class gesturing to the problem that was shown on the board before all twenty students in the class. Annabeth was able to read the problem, sitting in the front most seat of the class and the blonde girl raised her hand enthusiastically, a calculated look in the eighteen year old’s gray eyes as she stared at the problem before her. “Ah, Miss Chase!” Mr. Brunner smiled, pleased to see his star pupil wanting to solve the problem and save him the stress of having to call on someone. “Yes, please come up and show the class how to solve the problem.”

Gracefully, the blonde girl slipped out of her seat and walked up the front of the room and taking the white chalk out of the hand of her teacher and began to write down the answer to the problem. Some numbers weren’t too difficult to figure out, Annabeth figured out the system that the equation that Mr. Brunner gave out first was the easiest of the five equations he gave as examples before assigning the calculus class their homework.

In less than a minute, Annabeth was able to knock out the problem and gave the chalk right back to her teacher before promptly sitting back at her desk, wiping her white chalky hands on her sky blue swing skirt as she tuned into the teacher explaining how Annabeth had managed to execute the problem well without any faults.

The gray eyes that had calculated the problem just moments before found themselves flickering down to the blue fabric that sat on her lap as her small nimble fingers began to pick on it in thought. It wasn’t that Annabeth found the class to be a bore, it was just… well if she figured out one problem there was a probability she would be able to easily figure out the rest of the problems. That was just a fact that Annabeth had been able to realize in every class. Everything in this school was far too easy for her brain that managed to get her to become bored easily.

Movement caught the girl at the corner of her eye and Annabeth saw as a small paper airplane landed on her desk and slowly, the young Chase girl lifted her head up and looked over to her left, sitting on the other side of a boy who had his head down and was clearly asleep, to see her best friend Piper McLean looking at her grinning from ear to ear with mischief. Annabeth slowly reached out and grabbed the paper and held it under her desk and opening it up to read the girl’s messy handwriting scrawled onto the wrinkled paper.

 _Hot dog look at you showing off those math skills_ , the note read, hearts scattered all over the paper childishly, as the girl so often did showing her affection to her best friend. There was a giggle that erupted from Piper that snapped Mr. Brunner’s attention but he showed no sign that he was going to bother even asking who did so, as Piper and Annabeth seemed to be the only two girls awake in the class and even partially paying attention.

Annabeth shook her head and crumpled the paper up in her hand and threw the paper back at her friend a small smile escaping her lips as she did so and sat back in her seat normally hearing Piper laugh again and cover her hands with her mouth, trying to hide the small giggling fit she was having.

Best friend. That was a person that was often impossible for some people to find in life, someone one could confess all their troubles and emotions to. Being lucky enough to find that person was a miracle in itself and Annabeth was glad she able to call Piper McLean that person. Not to mention, it helped tremendously that the two of them seemed to agree on nearly everything.

 _Nearly_.

Another paper flew on Annabeth’s desk and she jumped a bit in surprise, thinking that Mr. Brunner would have taken notice of what was happening in the front of his class but he did and continued to lecture on, allowing Annabeth to open up the letter once again and try to decipher the code that was Piper McLean’s handwriting.

 _Sock hop tonight?_ it asked, a smiling face at the end of the sentence.

Instant guilt began to settle in Annabeth’s stomach, realizing that she had a change of plans, _again_. Having fun was something all teenagers were supposed to do but if that teenager was Annabeth Chase, having fun was one of the lowest priorities on her list. Her priorities were somewhat mature like, wanting to get on her teachers good side and getting the highest grades possible in her classes to hopefully get accepted into a good college and study architecture, something she had been longing to do since she was a child.

Annabeth looked over at Piper and gently shook her head with a helpless shrug and Piper’s smile dropped in an instant, looking deflated by the mere idea that her best friend would not be flanking at her side, again.

Annabeth winced, guilt ridden and grabbed a paper and began to scribble a note out, her own messy handwriting scrawled on the paper as the ink smudged, the girl having to use her left hand to write out the situation. The blonde girl folded the paper expertly and held it in her hand and launched it through the air towards Piper who reached her hand out to grab it, but instead it landed on a boy’s desk, one that sat between the two girls and he picked up his head sleepily, having heard the soft paper make contact with his wooden desk.

Annabeth cursed softly under her breath.

The boy looked up from his desk and picked the paper up, a deep scowl on his face as he squinted his eyes from the bright light shining through the window into him. Mr. Brunner was turned away and Annabeth reached out and grabbed the paper out of his hand, trying her best to maintain balance as she did so. The boy locked eyes with her for a moment, his sea green eyes widening in surprise and Annabeth, only for a second, admired just how gorgeous they were before she toppled to the ground on her hands and knees, the paper airplane in her hand now crushed beneath her weight.

Naturally, the sound of the chair scraping the tiled floor was enough to awaken the rest of the seventeen students in the class and look at Annabeth who had fallen out of her chair to retrieve a note that had no true significant importance to it. It was something Annabeth could’ve easily just waited to tell Piper _after_ class.

Mr. Brunner turned around fast, hearing the sudden commotion that had occurred in his classroom and slowly his dark brown eyes landed on Annabeth, who slowly began to push herself up, the tips of her ears red with embarrassment as she did so but tried to remain an air of confidence. The eighteen year old gripped the paper still in her hand, debating whether to tell the truth or a lie for Mr. Brunner’s next question.

“Miss Chase,” he said slowly, watching as the young girl began to pick up the other two pieces of paper that had fallen out of her lap when she had toppled to the floor. “Why were you on the floor?”

As gracefully as she could, Annabeth slid back into her desk, her knuckles beginning to turn white by how hard she was gripping the notes that were in her hands. “Well,” Annabeth responded just as slowly, trying her best to stall while she made up a lie, “you see, sir. I noticed that everyone was asleep in the class and thought it would be terribly rude if _everyone_ stayed asleep during the lecture that was clearly very important to the lesson.” Annabeth’s words grew more crisp as she spoke, getting more confident as the lie went on.

“Ah,” he said, clearly not believing a word she was saying. “So you decided that falling out of your chair would be the best move into waking everyone in the class up? I wouldn’t think that as wise, Miss Chase.”

Annabeth shook her head vigorously, clearly agitated that the teacher that taught the class she had the most interest in was mocking her. It shouldn’t have bothered Annabeth, she was lying, but she wanted to gain his trust now. Now it meant something.

“That’s not at all what I had in mind, sir!” she protested, a little meekly. “You see, I was trying to wake the students up individually while you weren’t looking because I was worried you might have been upset that I was talking during the lesson.”

The calculus teacher flicked his eyes over to Piper for a moment but nodded his head for the star student of the class to continue her explanation. Piper was grinning, clearly enjoying the elaborate story her friend was telling.

“So,” Annabeth continued, “I decided to start off here,” she gestured to the sea green eyed boy who sat beside her, “with Mr. . .” The words seemed to die off of Annabeth’s lips clearly at loss for what the name of the boy might be. She’d heard it plenty of times before. Girls fawned over him for the type of boy he was, the leather jacket he wore with the symbol of a face of the women that was clearly Medusa, the woman able to turn a man to stone when looking directly at her, a woman whose stories were told to Annabeth at a young age.

“Jackson,” the boy said, noting Annabeth’s silence and going along with this white lie she was elaborating far too long on. “Percy Jackson.”

“Right,” Annabeth said, her face now beginning to burn with embarrassment. “Percy,” Annabeth repeated, trying the name on her lips for a moment. “He can confirm I was just trying to get his attention during the lecture so he could pay attention…” Annabeth looked at him quietly, her calculating gray eyes narrowing at him dangerously. “Right, Percy?”

It was a bit ironic to Annabeth that his name was Percy, after the Greek hero that lived even past the battles he had won. He was one of the few heroes in Greek mythology that lived to see another day. It was a pretty name. Annabeth found herself also seeing what was written on the jacket above the picture of the Medusa Head, it was in Greek but Annabeth was able to read it with ease. Learning Greek was something that came almost as a second nature to her.

Οι Ολυμπιονίκες

_The Olympians._

“Right,” Percy agreed, with an affirmative nod of his head and shooting a side glance over at Annabeth, with a small mischievous smile.

“I see,” Mr. Brunner said, letting a few seconds of silence pass.

Annabeth looked at Piper, who was looking at Percy dangerously, a cunning look in her eye like she didn’t trust him. She had good reason to as well, after all he was one of the reasons Piper convinced Annabeth to never trust boys.

“Well, Percy and Annabeth, while that was a fascinating story you both managed to pull off, I would advise you to not do that again.” His gaze looked over at the rest of the class. “I would advise the rest of you to not fall asleep in my class, to avoid a disruption like this ever happening again.”

Annabeth sighed inwardly in relief, believing she had gotten off the hook as Mr. Brunner began to continue writing on the board, the next example to teach to the class. That was until she heard the words that brought a chill down her spine. Ten words she had heard before but they had never been directed at her.

“Both of you, stay after class when the bell rings.”


	2. Candy Ass

Annabeth was an absolute nervous wreck for the rest of the period and she showed it as she anxiously bounced her leg repeatedly as Mr. Brunner continued with his lesson on factoring algebraic equations. Percy Jackson had looked mildly surprised that he was being asked to stay after class considering the fact he wasn’t the one to have made the commotion that had occured in the class in the first place, but he made no comment over it and simply propped his head back down on his desk and fell into a deep sleep once again.

Piper had thrown Annabeth another note but Annabeth refused to open it, in fear she might be caught again and her punishment may become more severe. Getting in trouble was something that the blonde girl feared the most and ithe idea made her jump. Ever since a young age Annabeth was taught by her father and mother that getting in trouble at school would never help her in the long run. Annabeth refused to allow that to happen to her. She wanted to make her parents proud of her no matter what the cost. That was why she wanted to get accepted into an Ivy League school and design buildings and leave her mark on the world.

Annabeth wanted to make sure people _never_ forgot her name.

When the bell rang at three o’clock students practically bolted out of the classroom to go to their usual afternoon activities to either do school related club activities or head out to the diner and hang out with friends. Annabeth stood from her seat and waved Piper off to go with the other two girls that were already waiting for Annabeth and Piper outside the door.

Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano stood there, her black slick hair pulled into a tight ponytail atop of her head looking threateningly wearing a deep purple swing dress with a golden laurel patch that Annabeth thought looked very cute. The Puerto Rican girl glares at the other students who passed them, boys mainly who were checking out the newest edition to Annabeth’s clique. Calypso, a freshman fifteen year old girl, was holding the straps of her backpack, her golden hair pulled into a side braid, her thick rimmed glasses pushed up on her face, her chocolate brown eyes looking big and a huge smile on her face as she saw her two close friends. Calypso was new to the district, having just moved from Greece as a foreign exchange student. Annabeth had been ordered to show Calypso around the school when the young girl first arrived and after a while the girl clearly didn’t have any way to make friends, as she seemed to have been a social outcast while even back in Greece and Annabeth accepted her into the clique of girls she had formed.

Piper reluctantly left, shooting one more glare towards Percy Jackson who was rubbing the sleep from his eyes and he yawned stretching his arms over his head. Annabeth slid out of her chair throwing her bag over her shoulder quietly, keeping her head down as she walked up to Mr. Brunner’s desk hoping she would be able to explain her actions and avoid any consequences.

“Mr. Brunner,” she began, keeping her voice low hoping that the delinquent that still sat at his desk wouldn’t hear her, “I just wanted to apologize-”

Mr. Brunner held up a hand to the girl cutting her off mid-sentence.

Mr. Brunner was a man in his late forties that wore thin rimmed glasses at the bridge of his nose and had a wispy beard on his chin and always had the hint of a smile on his lips like he knew something that other students didn’t seem to know. “You don’t have to apologize for anything, dear,” Mr. Brunner said as he pushed himself up from his desk quietly. He wore a tweed jacket and a pair of brown pants that Annabeth could almost swear she has seen her father wear before.

He rested his dark gaze on Percy who was simply sitting in his chair lazily, his hands stuffed into the leather pockets of his jacket, outstretching his legs from under his desk exposing the dark denim he had chose to wore that day.

“Mr. Jackson,” Mr Brunner said as he strode across the room towards the boy’s desk. “I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but you are failing my class.”

Percy’s sea green eyes flickered over to Annabeth for a moment, as if he was trying to send a silent message to the blonde girl but she didn’t get it, clearly unaware of what he could even try to be conveying to her. He didn’t look upset, so Annabeth doubted he was trying to say that he hated her. Not to mention this wasn’t the first time that Percy had gotten in trouble in Mr. Brunner’s class, this was the first time that Annabeth had witnessed him getting lectured in the flesh though.

“What’s it to ya?” Percy asked, tossing clear attitude towards the class instructor. His voice was plagued by the New York accent, and it was clearly heavier in some works than others. Percy shifted a bit in his seat and tossed his black hair that had begun to fall into his eyes out of his face and he grinned a bit, in a devil may care way.

Annabeth felt herself grow annoyed at the sight of it.

“You are aware, no college will accept you if you don’t show at least the least bit of concern for your grades, Mr. Jackson, correct?”

“I’m aware,” Percy said and tried to push himself out of his desk, the boy didn’t have a backpack, clearly trying to keep a reputation that he had as a bad boy. “Luckily, for me though. I’m not going to college. My father has offered me a position at his… _company_.”

Annabeth scowled, her hands grabbing at her skirt and clutched it in anger. The Olympians wasn’t a company, it was a gang of dangerous individuals. Annabeth could tolerate them to an extent, having a group of them in the school was fine to Annabeth as long as they didn’t cause trouble. Saying becoming leader of the gang to sell drugs and pay for prostitutes was better than going to college, that gave Annabeth a nudge to hate him a little more.

A part of Annabeth could now see why Piper had broken up with that boy Jason Grace.

Mr. Brunner clearly knew what Percy was talking about but he ignored that and watched as the boy began walking out of the classroom silently. His stride was overly confident and for a second Annabeth had the urge to throw one of the crumpled papers she still held in her hand at him when Mr. Brunner spoke up again, still containing the calmest composure he never seemed to break. “I can revoke your diploma if you fail my class, Percy.”

A small gasp of mild surprise escaped Annabeth’s lips when she heard those words and Percy stopped at the door and had his hand placed on the doorknob about to walk about, The image of Medusa’s head gave Annabeth chills down her spine, remembering the story that her mother had told her about the woman. How hideous she was and the one time she was defeated, her head had been cut off. Her head had been cut off by the hero Perseus and was given to the goddess Athena as a gift, the symbol of her head being used as a symbol to be feared by those who gaze upon her. Annabeth averted her gaze anxiously. Slowly, Percy turned around, ridding of the image of Medusa and he looked at Mr. Brunner quietly, a scowl resting on his face.

“Excuse me?” he asked, clearly baffled by the idea that someone was going to actually _try_ and hold him back from graduating. “Ya can’t do that.” His voice dropped a bit lower than usual, almost in a threatening way. His eyes flickered back to Annabeth again, like he wanted her to interfere with what was happening but Annabeth wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say in this situation. This wasn’t her fight to pick and Mr. Brunner was one of the more stubborn teachers.

“Actually,” Mr. Brunner said with a small shrug, “I can. Especially since I can’t possibly allow you to graduate without even trying to pass this class.”

Percy shook his head and looked at Annabeth, giving her a look with a question in his eyes, _Is this fool serious?_

Annabeth shrugged a little helplessly, unable to bring herself to say that he was right. A part of her wondered why Mr. Brunner wanted her to to be a part of this conversation, this wasn’t something she needed to be hearing. Why was she asked to be stayed behind?

“Well,” Percy said, venom dripping off of that one word, “how the hell are ya expecting me to bring my grade up by the end of the month? What’s ya solution for this?” Percy glanced over at Annabeth and grinned a bit like he had won the fight.

Mr. Brunner’s small knowing smile grew a bit more as he said his next words: “Why, Miss Chase is going to be your tutor for the next month.”

“ _What?_ ”

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other in surprise both of their eyes wide. Neither of them could ever imagine the other being around the other. Annabeth couldn’t associate with Percy, he was dangerous and Annabeth didn’t like the idea of being around a dangerous person. And a Percy was… well he ran the school in the school in the most dangerous way possible.

“I can’t do that,” Annabeth stated with an affirmative shake of her head. “I have other priorities on my list, Mr. Brunner. I can’t allow myself to get distracted from them, especially since I have student duties to uphold as the valedictorian-”

“This is now going to be a priority, Annabeth.” He used her first name for the first time and he looked at her. “That is, unless you want detention for passing notes in my class all the time.”

Annabeth’s face turned red at those words and she realized maybe she wasn’t as slick as she thought she was. She would have to warn Piper that the two of them would not be able to communicate effectively again in class in the form that they had been doing since the two girls first met each other.

Not to mention Annabeth couldn’t get a detention, that would ruin her clean student record and ruin her slightest chances to being allowed to attend her dream Ivy League school; that would ruin everything. Annabeth couldn’t afford that. She needed to get into a good school. It was already bad enough that she struggled because she was a woman, she didn’t need to give the deans a reason to not accept a highly qualified young woman like Annabeth Chase because she got detention for doing something as childish as passing notes.

“I see,” Annabeth mumbled softly under her breath as she pushed a piece of her blonde hair that had slipped out of her ponytail behind her ear anxiously. “Well…” Annabeth anxiously over at Percy who was looking at her like she was insane. “I suppose I can help Percy pass the class and… other’s if necessary.”

Mr. Brunner nodded his head in satisfaction and smiled at the blonde girl. “Excellent. You both can set a date to start studying.” He looked at Percy. “By the next test, I expect to see a passing grade.” Mr. Brunner looked between the two students before he strode back to his desk to continue grading papers. “Or the deal is off.”


	3. Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’

Percy Jackson hadn’t really cared about school or his grades until about fifteen minutes ago when he was threatened to be deprived of his high school diploma if he didn’t pass his calculus class. Percy didn’t think he needed to care, it was just a math class but here he was. Suffering.

Annabeth was talking, explaining the topics that the two of them had to go over before the next test and Percy was only half paying attention to the girl’s rambling. She spoke quietly and kept herself at a distance from Percy, like she was worried if she stood too close to him he would chuck her off the steps of the school.

“Got any fags on ya?” Percy found himself asking, interrupting Annabeth midway through her sentence.

The blonde girl froze, looking up from her notebook she was holding and scowled a bit at the boy. “Excuse me?” she mumbled looking at him, the calculating look in her gray eyes disappearing and instead being replaced with a pure look of confusion.

“Fags,” Percy repeated, his hands in the pockets of his jacket as he gripped the lighter he had tucked away. “I ran out during lunch and I’m craving one now.”

Annabeth glances around the school steps like she was looking for someone to make sure she had heard him right, but the two of them were alone in their conversation. Slowly, the girl shook her head no. “Sorry, no.”

Percy sighed a bit dramatically and threw his head back and he gave the girl an annoyed look as he brought his gaze back to hers and leaned himself against the railing of the steps, tapping the iron railing with his fingers. “Aren’t you a stick in the mud. You don’t smoke?”

Annabeth looked a bit flustered by the question and Percy wasn’t really sure what he expected. She looked like a clean girl who didn’t have a bad bone in her body. He was mildly impressed that she had gotten in trouble at all. She had obviously never gotten in trouble before, so of course she didn’t smoke.

“No,” Annabeth said.

“Well that blows,” Percy whistled. “I’ve been craving that shit since Brunner’s class started.”

Annabeth scowled a bit and ignored the boy’s comment. Cigarettes were clearly the least of her worries. “Okay. So we’ll start studying tomorrow. We can catch up at the library after school and I’ll help you with homework from this past week to turn in.”

“Tomorrow’s Friday though,” Percy complained, his gaze having left the girl’s for a moment as he noticed his friends across the quad. He noticed Jason Grace first, wearing his jacket and looking like he owned the place and Percy grinned a bit, about ready to go over there and shove him for acting like an over confident pompous ass. “Can’t we study on Monday?”

Annabeth snapped her fingers under the senior’s nose, catching his attention causing him to snap his head back at her. “No.” She sighed. “The test is next week. And I know for a fact that if I allow you to postpone it, on Monday your gonna say to take another rain check and you are gonna end up failing the class and not getting your diploma at the end of the month.”

Percy crossed his arms over his chest. “And when have you suddenly cared about me graduating?” Percy cocked an eyebrow at her. “You don’t seem to like me very much.”

Annabeth shrugged. “I can’t deny it that I don’t like you. But I would hate to see anyone suffer another year of high school because of a simple subject.” Annabeth tossed her hair over her shoulder. “So tomorrow, we’ll study and I’m going to make sure you pass that test.”

Her persistence was something else.

Percy almost found it admirable but the annoyance he had towards the girl was a lot stronger than any sort of admirable feeling. He rolled his eyes standing up straighter about ready to run off with his friends. “It’s nice to know someone cares,” Percy said and gave her the slightest hint of a smile. “Thanks, Wise Girl.”

Annabeth flinched hearing the nickname. “Wise Girl?” she asked, confused.

Percy grinned. “You’re pretty smart. Can’t deny that. Plus, I figured ya wouldn’t have appreciated me calling ya Annie.”

Annabeth turned red; Percy figured because she hated that name. “Yeah. Stick with Wise Girl.” She took a beat of thought. “Or Annabeth. Which is my _actual_ name.” She raised an eyebrow at him.

Percy made a face and shook his head. “Nah,” he said with a laugh. “That’s a bore.” The boys arrived at the bottom steps and Percy began making his way down the steps of the school, leaving Annabeth standing at the top of the steps to stare after him as she held the notebook she had been writing in to her chest. Percy glanced back at Annabeth, wrapping his arm around a blonde boy that he considered one of his best friends.

Jason nudged him and smiled and looked up at the girl that Percy had been talking to just moments before and his smile wavered a bit.

“See ya tomorrow, Annabeth!” Percy called out with one last wave and turned away walking with his friends off.

Jason Grace walked along quietly, with a small smile and shrugged Percy’s arm off of his shoulder. “What were you doin’ talkin’ to Annabeth Chase?”

Leo Valdez walked by Jason, flanking his side and had his hair messy, like he had been with a girl but Percy highly doubted that was possible. All girls in this school were fearful of the students who were in association with The Olympians.

“Yeah. She looked like she wanted to kill ya,” Leo said. His elfish features stretched out into a grin as he looked over at Percy, obviously having usual insane thoughts running through his mind. “But Percy is into the feisty gals.”

Percy laughed.

“Cut the gas, Valdez.” The Mexican boy tripped a bit in his step as he was kicked in the back of his knees, but he managed to maintain his footing. He laughed turning around to see Nico di Angelo glaring at him. Despite the fact he was the youngest member in The Olympian gang, he still was the most intimidating. “No one is asking for your opinion.”

“I’m willing to listen,” Percy said. “Cool it, Nico. Let’s hear what he’s got to say about her. Valdez has some words of wisdom about women.”

“No he doesn’t,” Frank Zhang said. The fifth member of the group said with a roll of his eyes. He was the most out of place of the group, always looking a little uncomfortable. Percy tried his best to help him try and fit into the group, because he _looked_ like he was supposed to belong. He was the most muscled in the group and was the real reason people feared them. “Leo claims to have a girlfriend but we’ve never seen her. So we can’t believe his ‘woman words of wisdom’.”

“I _do_ have a girlfriend!” Leo protested, his voice breaking in those words. “We’re just taking things slow, she doesn’t want things to be set in stone yet.”

Jason grinned. “I believe you, Leo.”

Leo saluted him. “Spoken like a true friend, Grace.” He grinned.

Percy smiled and walked along the sidewalk quietly. All five boys walked with confident strides and Percy found himself noticing how people would walk out of their way to not run into the five boys. Percy didn’t mind, he’d been used to this for years even before the time when he joined The Olympians.

“Time?” Percy asked as they turned a corner into a damp alleyway. He walked over garbage that was thrown in the place and over puddles of water.

“We’re late,” Jason informed Percy. “The meeting already started.”

Percy cursed under his breath and stepped up to a door that was covered in police tapes and signs so no one would enter the place. The eighteen year old knocked on the door in a series of different taps and the door swung open revealing a tall burly man with piercing blue eyes and salt and pepper colored hair with a matching neatly trimmed beard. He wore a black suit looking like he was from any government job, working in a cubical. He was taller than all five boys that stood at the entrance of The Olympians headquarters.

He glowered down at Percy Jackson putting the blame on him instantly.

“You’re late,” Zeus, the leader of The Olympians said, his voice sending chills through Percy but he didn’t waver in his confident stance. Past him he could see his father, Poseidon, sitting in a chair and controlling the meeting that was taking place with the other Olympian members. “I told you to not be late again after last week’s meeting.”

“And I told ya that sometimes school comes first.” Percy rolled his eyes. “When school is over I won’t be late anymore. Cut me some slack old man.”

Zeus opened his mouth to tell the boy off over his smart ass comment but seemed to think better if it, knowing fully well that Percy Jackson was a stubborn ass. He wouldn’t change his way over anything if his life depended on it.

“Get inside,” the man ordered, stepping aside and holding the door wider so the five boys could get in.

The warehouse was bustled with life, servants attending the needs to The Olympians that sat at a semi round table. There were twelve leaders in total that ran different districts of Manhattan. It was people no one would have expected to have joined this group. The twelve ‘olympians’, as they called themselves, served order in the city. They weren’t completely like how people often thought they were like, The Olympians had power for sure and if Zeus wanted to he could order one of his servants to kill someone on the spot, but they weren’t savages.

The Olympians that served below the leaders was a band of ‘heroes’ that did something noteworthy and were willing to protect the streets of Manhattan from the real problems, the ones who robbed banks and killed innocent people. Percy had done his fair share of “saving” people from the usual muggers that walked down the street. He was the heir to the power of controlling Long Island Sound, the place where his father Poseidon ruled.

“You’re late,” a girl’s voice said her voice ringing out above the other voices, the meeting reaching to a screeching halt. All eyes turned to Percy and his friends silently, waiting for his new reason as to why he was late to another Olympian meeting.

“So I’ve been told,” Percy said and looked over to see Thalia Grace, one of the only women to be a member of The Olympians, standing atop of a chair, her hands on her hips. Other than being one of the best ‘heroes’ to arise in The Olympians, Thalia Grace was the heir to The Olympians and was next in line in the hierarchy of people to run this city.

“You better have a good reason for depriving me of my little brother,” the girl said jerking her chin in the direction where the five boys stood.

Jason, unable to help himself despite the fact his friend was being chastised for being late, smiled at Thalia and waved at her. The two of them had been separated at a young age, Jason was raised with Zeus and Thalia had lived with their mother, a selfish bitch who only cared about herself before her untimely death about three years ago. Thalia returned the smile back to her brother before she returned to her gaze to Percy who was trying his hardest to not combust by the sudden attention he was receiving.

“I got into a bit of a problem with ol’ Brunner again,” Percy said throwing his arm around Jason once again, pulling his friend close to him in a side hug. “Jace here was jus’ waitin’ up for me with the guys ‘til I got out.”

“Were you cruisin’ for a bruisin’ again, Jackson?” Thalia asked crossing her arms over her chest. “You know the rules, don’t cause trouble. That’s not what we’re about.”

“What’s it to ya?” Percy asked narrowing his eyes at the short haired girl.

“Do you wanna go, Jackson?”

Percy removed his arm from around Jason and the corner of his lips lifted into a smirk, knowing fully well just how this could end up. The boy lifted one fist before him and said, “Bring it on, Grace.”

“Break it up you two.” Poseidon barked as he pushed himself from his seat and flared between the two cousins. He wore the same attire as Zeus, his weapon of choice sitting behind him, a trident. His brown hair was messy, like he had just came from having a swim in the ocean, which wouldn’t have surprised Percy. His father loved the ocean just as much as Percy loved it. “We have bigger problems to worry about,” he said as Zeus sat beside his brother and glared at Percy, ignoring the fact that his daughter was the one who instigated the argument in the first place.

Zeus said, “Percy, sit down. It’s time to get down to business.” He grinned at his nephew wickedly. “I’ve got a quest for you.”


	4. “The Sock Hop”

Music blasted out of the Half-Blood Diner as “sock hop hour” was beginning. (It wasn’t _really_ a sock hop, Annabeth had figured out a few years back, it was just an hour at the Half-Blood Diner to convince teenagers to spend all their money at the place after school.) Laughter and talk flooded out of the diner from over enthusiastic teenagers that had just been released from school. Some students lingered on the outside of the diner, a few couples lingering around and kissing each other and showing absolutely no mercy to pedestrians made their daily commute.

Annabeth hadn't planned to head to the diner, after all she had plans to go and help her history teacher grade some tests, but after that conversation she had with Percy Jackson and learning she would have to tutor him, the blonde girl couldn’t bare to sit around and wallow in her own self pity alone. She pulled open the diner doors silently, her hair swinging with each movement she made and she stepped into the teenage filled diner.

Teenagers were milled around talking and drinking a milkshake with their friends/significant others. The jukebox that stood at the end of the diner had a couple of boys hanging around it that Annabeth couldn’t pinpoint off the top of her head, and it was clear they were in charge of what music would be playing. The song Be Bop a Lula blasted from it currently and Annabeth looked eyes with a boy, a scrawny thin haired blue eyes boy who had a scowl. He wore a leather jacket, but it was clear he wasn’t a part of The Olympians. Annabeth would’ve known.

She averted her gaze from him nervously and saw Piper, Reyna and Calypso sitting on the other side of the diner, away from the chaos. Annabeth weaved through the people, muttering her ‘excuse me’s and ‘sorry’s’ accordingly and slipped in right beside Piper who had been in a deep conversation with the other two girls froze mid sentence upon seeing her closest companion and threw her arms around her in excitement.

“Annie, you’re here!”

Despite the fact that Annabeth had told Percy she didn’t like the nickname, Piper was the only one Annabeth would ever allow to call her that. Mainly because Piper had been around with Annabeth for the past three years and knew her inside and out. Annabeth smiled at Piper wrapping her free arm around the brunette girl smiled at her two other friends. Calypso had brightened up instantly upon seeing her friend and Reyna looked mildly satisfied, the smallest smile settling on her lips upon seeing Annabeth. Piper detached herself from Piper and placed her bag on the floor beside her feet. She noticed that all three of them had a milkshake placed in front of them.

Annabeth pouted good naturedly. “You guys got shakes without me?”

Piper laughed and got on her knees on the red vinyl booth waved her hands in the air, trying to catch the attention of the waitress who had served them. “Can I get a white cow?” Piper shouted. Annabeth giggled in amusement and gently nudged Piper and the girl sat down after hearing a response from the waitress for her to shut up.

Piper sat back down, grinning from ear to ear. “She’ll bring it over in a bit.”

Calypso didn’t seem to particularly care about whether Annabeth got her milkshake or not and leaned forward in the booth and took one of Annabeth’s hands in her own. “Miss Piper told us you got in trouble with, Mr. Brunner. What happened?”

Calypso had the slightest bit of an accent when she spoke but Annabeth didn’t particularly mind. Annabeth knew how difficult it was to learn a new language, but so far Calypso seemed to be getting the hang of the English language. The golden haired girl liked to use her hands to speak and would sometimes switch to words in Greek; Annabeth only knew a bit of Greek, having wanting to learn it to help the girl settle in a little better.

Annabeth returned the squeeze. “Oh. It wasn’t anything… _major_ …”

 _That_ was an understatement.

Annabeth wasn’t sure how she was supposed to say the truth to Piper, because she knew exactly how the girl was going to react. If anyone hated The Olympians more than Annabeth, it was Piper. After all she was the one who dated the blonde boy who was second in line to The Olympians’ throne, Jason Grace.

“Oh, stop being so vague.” Piper rolled her hands in a motion that told Annabeth for her to continue on with whatever she was saying. “What did he actually say?” Her kaleidoscope colored eyes practically bored into Annabeth’s and the blonde found herself flushing anxiously as her foot tapped against the tiled floor.

“Um…” Annabeth hesitated. “Well, for one he knows we pass notes during class.”

“Everyone knows we pass notes during class.” Piper rolled her eyes with a small smile. “It wasn’t a secret, Annie. You know that.”

Annabeth did know this, but stalling was currently the best option.

“I think you know what we’re asking for,” Reyna said. She was looking at Annabeth calmly, her thick black hair over her shoulder despite the fact it was still in a ponytail. Reyna held a powerful stance around her and she was someone Annabeth could identify from a mile away. She held leadership skills that Annabeth only craved she could have, her voice was so quiet and commanding. It was a wonder that boys always fell to her knees for her, she was regal and beautiful. “Why did Brunner call you back along with Percy Jackson?” She said the name so smoothly that Annabeth almost wondered for a second if she knew him but Annabeth didn’t feel like that was an appropriate question.

“Oh.” Annabeth’s foot tapped faster. “Well… Mr. Brunner was telling Percy that he was failing the class and that if he didn’t pass soon that he would revoke Percy’s diploma.”

Calypso gasped. “You can do that?”

“Apparently.” Annabeth sighed.

Piper tilted her head, glancing at Reyna as a silent exchanged passed between the two friends. “So,” Piper began slowly, “what did that conversation have to do with you?”

Annabeth shrugged. “It didn’t.”

Reyna raised an eyebrow. “So what? You were there for Brunner to make a show in front of the most promising student in the school? Get him to maybe change his mind.”

“Well,” Annabeth began but was cut off as a waitress placed down a vanilla milkshake before her and she smiled, thanking the woman who looked hard at work and took a sip of it. A white cow, Annabeth’s favorite classic drink. “I was important for the second half of the conversation.” She glances at Piper anxiously. “Don’t have a cow when I say it.”

Piper scowled and swallowed her drink. “Why would I do that?”

Annabeth took a deep breath and silently prayed to whatever higher being was out there watching over her that Piper would not overreact and said, “I’m going to be Percy’s tutor for the next month.”

Piper hadn’t exactly promised she was going to remain calm when Annabeth broke the news, so she didn’t blame the brunette girl when she threw her tantrum at the table. Her eyes widened and she gasped a lot louder than Annabeth would’ve liked causing a couple of people from the close by tables to turn their heads over and see what the problem was, but looked away when they saw Piper grab Annabeth by the shoulders and shake her vigorously as if trying to knock some sense into her. No one was about to mess with that.

“You can’t do that!” Piper yelled, fear written all over her face. “Annabeth, you can’t tutor him, you know I can’t let you associate with his kind of people.”

Annabeth somehow managed to detach Piper’s hands from her body and rolled her shoulders back trying to regain feeling in them. “Well, Brunner didn’t exactly leave me a choice.” Annabeth looked at Reyna, as if asking for some support. “He said if I didn’t do it I would get detention with him and that would go on my student record. I won’t get into school with that mark there-“

“But Annabeth,” Piper whined, “you can't associate with them. You know what they’ve done.”

Annabeth sighed. “I’m just tutoring him, Pipes. It’s not like I’m becoming his friend.” Annabeth looked at Reyna and Calypso. “Back me up here, you two.”

Reyna shrugged quietly. “Don’t complain, Piper. She isn’t doing anything bad, she just needs to do this. Annabeth won’t bring him in your range, she’ll just tutor him and forget about him. Right?”

“Exactly,” Annabeth confirmed with a nod of her head. “You have nothing to worry about, Pipes. I’m not going to let those guys hurt you again.” Annabeth took Piper’s hands in her own and squeezed them reassuringly. “I promise on my life.”

It was funny how Annabeth hated believing rumors and gossip that travelled dangerously fast around their school. She had never seen the boys hurt anyone purposefully, but after hearing what happened between Piper and Jason in the previous year Annabeth doubted she would be able to trust any of his friends. There was too many stories surrounding those boys and who they were associated with.

Piper and Jason had broke up after Piper had been with Jason and saw him get into a fight with someone while the two had been on a date. They had been dating for about half a year by that point. Annabeth was friends with Piper but tried her best to not be around the girl when she was with her boyfriend, she always found herself anxious when she saw the leather jackets.

Apparently, Jason had left the restaurant the two were in and went to the back to beat up a guy. Piper had walked out, unknowing and just worried to where Jason had gone to and froze seeing the man he had hurt lying on the floor with a crooked nose and blood escaping his nose. Jason was caught red handed with blood on his knuckles and the man’s wallet in his hands.

Piper had ran off before he could give her a solid explanation. Jason had tried getting her back for weeks after but ultimately gave up when he realized it was no use. The rumor spread throughout the school that The Olympians were dangerous, before Jason and Piper’s breakup at least a few people talked to them but after that people began to realize they could not be trusted. They were probably doing that under people’s noses, so no one associated them anymore.

Until today.

Calypso raised her hand ever so slightly bringing Annabeth out of her thoughts and also interrupting the moment between the two friends. “And… they might not be that bad anymore?” She offered. “They seem nice. They don’t really bother anyone.”

Piper opened her mouth to respond but Annabeth cut her off, worried she would end up going on a rant about Jason Grace again, which was something Annabeth didn’t like to hear. “That’s what they want us to think,” Annabeth said. “Remember, Cal, they’re in a gang. They hurt people, you’ve heard the stories.”

“But,” Calypso rubbed her arms, “someone told me those are myths.” She looked between all three of her friends. “The Olympians are like… a patrol. They protect people. They’re almost like undercover heroes, but people just get the wrong idea about them.” Calypso said these words like she’d heard them dozens of times before.

Piper scowled, clearly an unbeliever in Calypso’s words but said nothing, looking down at her lap as she pulled her hands out of Annabeth’s grasp.

“They might be,” Reyna said cupping her hands together. Her voice was quiet when she spoke, not invoking any emotions like she was trying to hide her opinions. “Better to be safe than sorry, though.”


	5. Money Always Talks

Percy wasn't really sure how he got to the diner. The Olympians meeting had been disbanded about an hour ago leaving Percy to go and walk home alone. The other guys had parted ways with him a few blocks back, going to their own houses, leaving Percy alone to try and process what had just happened at the meeting.

He stood outside Half-Blood Diner, looking inside unsure whether he wanted to go in and he could see from outside Annabeth with her friends. Her long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail in a deep and serious conversation with Piper McLean, Jason's ex-girlfriend.

Percy had spoken to Piper on more than one occasion; she was a kind and high spirited person that Percy had gotten along with. Annabeth always left before Percy could bring himself to speak with her; he always thought she was pretty but never could find it in himself to talk to her. He wasn't like Leo who could flirt with every girl who looked in his direction. Percy's strength always seemed to lie in awkward conversation starters, like for instance earlier when he had asked Annabeth for a cigarette. _That_ was pretty awkward.

Annabeth Chase was pretty to look at, no denying that, but she was also going to be a real pain in Percy's ass. Percy couldn't stick around for tutoring sessions all the time. The Olympians looked like they weren't going to be accepting Percy going late to the meetings anymore, so he would have to rain check if meetings went on days Annabeth wanted to study.

A hand slapped Percy's back and the boy flinched, whipping his head over to see Poseidon. He wore his leather jacket that matched Percy's, the right sleeve having a trident patch indicating who he was.

"I- Dad?" Percy stuttered out, surprised. His father rarely spoke to him so Percy was always a little surprised when Poseidon decided to do something like this. Percy didn't mind it, he was the main reason he joined The Olympians. "What are you doing here?" His eyes flicked around the street nervously and he saw other people walking up and down avoiding Percy and Poseidon as best as they could at the sight of their jackets.

Poseidon didn't seem to mind the stares and he quietly pushed Percy forward and into the diner. "We have to talk," he ordered. "Let's talk inside."

Percy stumbled into the diner, a few of the customers glancing his way and turning a static silent in fear. Percy glanced back at his father, giving him a sharp look and made his way across the diner with a scowl on his face, his father following. His mother was going to be furious he was late again.

Percy passed by the table Annabeth was sitting at and only glanced at her at the corner of his eye and watched as the girl picked up her head, hearing the nearly silent diner and saw Percy. It was like everything moved in slow motion. The blonde girl gave him a look that spoke legends. So many questions and statements in one look.

_Why are you here? You need to leave. Who is that with you? You're making people nervous. Don't cause trouble, Percy._

Percy only inclined his head a couple of degrees and only meeting her eyes and gave the slightest nod before walking off to the farthest corner of the diner.

_Don't worry about me._

Percy slid into the red vinyl booth, his father sitting across from him and after a couple more seconds of silence the diner was bustled with life again and Percy sighed a bit in relief. He may have been one of the worst things to apparently happen to the teenage community, but that didn't mean he liked it all the negative attention he received. The eighteen year old boy cupped his hands together on the table as he sat there silently. "What do you need?" Percy asked quietly, meeting his father's sea green eyes.

Poseidon was quiet as he sat there, staring down at the chrome colored table and looking awfully distracted by whatever was on his mind. Percy stared at his father quietly. He remembered when his father had first entered his life again six years ago. Back when he was trying to just make it to the sixth grade with his over hyperactive activity and his inability to read. His father had told him there was a way he would be able to help Percy through the difficult time he and his mother had been going through that year. His mother, Sally Jackson, had married a man that Percy still despised to this day. Gabe Ugliano. He hated Percy right back, calling him names that a twelve year old didn't deserve to hear.

_"Hello Percy Jackson. My name is Poseidon," he had introduced himself as. Percy had just gotten out of school about ten minutes before, making his daily commute back home alone. Percy had been stopped by Poseidon just as he turned down his street and ran into the man. Poseidon was wearing his leather jacket that day, at the time The Olympians hadn't been too well known._

_Percy scowled. Being the smart ass he was, he said, "Does it look like I care?" Percy just wanted to get home, getting bullied by kids on a daily basis for nearly the entirety of a school day drained Percy a lot more than he liked to admit. "Move outta the way, ol' man." Percy shoved Poseidon aside and made his way down the street again._

_Poseidon has caught up with Percy again, roughly grabbing the boy's elbow in his calloused hands and turned him around and Percy noticed his eyes for the first time and how eerily similar they were to Percy's._

_"Let me reintroduce myself," the man said with a small knowing smile. "My name is Poseidon. I'm your father." Percy's face must've paled at those words and Poseidon's grin widened. "I have an offer to help you and your mother get away from your stepfather."_

"Percy."

Percy flinched out of his thoughts and back to reality where his father was looking at him with a question lingering in his gaze. He leaned forward in the booth, looking at his son.

Percy leaned back nervously. "I know ya want to talk about what Zeus said," Percy muttered under his breath, crossing his arms over his chest. "I know ya think I can't handle it but I can. Ya know I've done worse."

Poseidon held up a hand. "I believe you, son. But I'm worried. If you do this wrong, everything we've worked for to find out their headquarters could be compromised."

Percy shrugged, looking like he didn't particularly care about the "quest" he was given. "I'm not gonna be doin' this alone. Ya know I've done worse in the past."

"This isn't the past."

"Oh," Percy said with an eye roll, "I wasn't aware."

"I'm serious, son," Poseidon narrowed his eyes at Percy dangerously. "You can't fuck this up."

"Listen up, ol' man," Percy said leaning forward. "You've been in ma life a total of six years and there has not been one instance where I've fucked up on of Zeus's little 'quests'," Percy made air quotes around the word. "Why on Earth, are you thinking I'm gonna mess this one up?"

"Because this one," Poseidon hissed, "requires you to kill an entire group of people. I don't think you're ready for that."

Those words sent a chill down Percy's spine and he realized how much he was truly dreading doing this job. This job was truly going to be one of his most difficult yet. "You don't know me," Percy mumbled. "I'll get it done."

"I don't want you doing this alone," Poseidon said quietly.

"I told you, I got the guys by ma side."

"That's not what I meant." Poseidon gave Percy a hard look. "I know you always hold in what you're feeling. It destroys you to not be able to tell your mother what's going on in your life. Talk to Jason, or make a new friend. It's only going to get worse after this."

"I don't have anything to confess." Percy scowled. "What? Do you want me to go confess my sins at church?"

"I want you to make a friend."

Those words were almost foreign to Percy. Making a friend wasn't something he could just do. That had been proven earlier that day with Annabeth. He had played along with her little idea to get out of trouble but that just led them both into trouble. He doubted they would become friends after this, she was being forced to tutor him. She wouldn't want to hear his sob story about being in a gang.

His eyes flickered over to where Annabeth was sitting and he watched as all her friends got up simultaneously and waved her goodbye leaving the girl all alone to finish her milkshake. She looked up at him and offered him the slightest wave of acknowledgement and Percy almost couldn't help himself but give her a smile in return.

"I'll try," Percy said. "But I ain't makin' any promises."

Poseidon seemed to be mildly satisfied with this compromise and pushed himself out of the vinyl booth claiming he had to leave before it got too late. Percy just nodded his head not particularly giving a shit. Poseidon always had somewhere else to go that wasn't around Percy. It was something that Percy had to suck up.

 _Hey that's life,_ Leo Valdez had told him during his first year in high school when he had been complaining about it to his friends, _and life ain't fair._

Percy sighed and glanced back over where Annabeth was sitting again and saw she was out of her seat and making her way over to him. Her blonde hair swinging from side to side with each step she took. Her sky blue swing skirt almost seeming to flow as she walked over and sat across from him, her milkshake still in hand.

Percy found himself at a loss for words. No one other than his friends sat with him whenever he was at the diner alone. This gave Percy a whiplash.

"Uh," Percy flickered his sea green eyes around the diner to see if anyone had seen what was going on but no one seemed to be looking in his direction. "Hey, Wise Girl."

Annabeth sipped on her milkshake. "Don't make this weird."

Percy leaned back in his seat and watched her for a moment, tapping his foot on the ground silently. "Why are you sitting with me?"

"Do I need a reason?" Annabeth asked placing her glass down. She was barely halfway done with the drink. She leaned her elbows on the chrome table and looked at him quietly, a calculating look in her gray eyes. "Who were you talkin' to right now?"

Percy glanced to the door where his father had left through and he shrugged a bit. "My dad."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows ever so lightly and she nodded. "So you're dad is in The Olympians?" her question didn't sound threatening, just curious. Purely interested as to what exactly The Olympians was. It was such a down low group that no one really knew who they were.

"Yeah," Percy responded. "He runs the Long Island chapter."

Annabeth nodded. "Huh." She was silent for a three count. "There's chapters?"

Percy grinned a bit. "You writing a book?" He whipped his hair out of his face and he chuckled under his breath. "Why so many questions?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes and sipped her drink again. "I'm just interested," she said swallowing the sweet drink. "I wanna know more about you before we have to study tomorrow." She smiled ever so slightly. "I don't want to tutor a complete stranger." She shrugged. "Plus, you don't really seem too bad to make as a friend."

_I want you to make a friend._

Percy sighed and nodded his head. "Alright. Well, to answer your question, yeah. There's chapters. There's a lot more members in The Olympians then ya might think."

Annabeth hummed. "Really? Does anyone just get admitted?"

"Depends. Most people who are in it are in because someone knows another. Like my dad recruited me. It's the same with the other guys I hang out with."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "All of your parents are in The Olympians?"

"My mom isn't," Percy confirmed and shakes his head. "She wants nothing to do with The Olympians, mainly because my dad is in it."

"Are your parents together?"

"Separated." Percy bit the inside of his cheek. "She's married to this other guy. He's cool."

Annabeth mouth opened in an 'oh' shape and she nodded her head softly. He didn't know too much about Annabeth but he'd heard enough about her to know that her parents met at Harvard University. The two of them had taught there together before her dad moved out with another woman and began living in New York around the time when Annabeth turned seven. When Annabeth went into high school, her mom moved back and became the principal of the high school they currently attend. That was according to what Piper said last year when the two of them had talked.

"What's your story?" Percy asked.

"Same as you." Annabeth shrugged. "Nearly, at least. My mom is the principal. I don't see her around too much. And my dad is married to a bitch of a woman." Annabeth exhaled through her nose. "She's about as bad as stepmothers get."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

Percy got quiet. _There's a lot more members in The Olympians then ya might think_. That wasn't a lie but Percy doubted that was his position to mention up what wasn't his to tell. Athena could tell her own daughter she was a member or The Olympians. "Still," Percy said, "no one deserves that shit."

Annabeth shrugged and finished up the milkshake and quietly got out of her seat and grabbed her bag quietly and placed it on her lap and pulled out some money and placed it down beside her milkshake. "Yeah. Well it sucks. I'm underneath their clamp though, I gotta go."

Percy watched as the girl got herself out of the booth quietly throwing her bag over her shoulder. The eighteen year old boy got up quietly as well and he smiled at her. "Let me walk you home," he said.

"You don't have to do that," Annabeth said with a violent shake of her head but Percy held up a hand stopping her.

"I insist." Percy grinned at her. "I wanna hear more about you. After all," he wrapped an arm around her jokingly, "I don't want to be tutored by a complete stranger."


	6. Worse Things They Could Do

That walk to Annabeth’s house was nice, it brought Percy a ease and it gave Percy a better understanding of the blonde girl. Annabeth had a lot more going on in her life then she ever seemed to be letting on. She spoke confidently like nothing seemed to be bothering her but Percy could see that behind those narrow stormy gray eyes she was in pain.

Percy stood at the top of the steps with her and she leaned against the column located on the porch of her house. She had her arms crossed over her stomach and she shifted from foot to foot awkwardly. Her gray eyes looked past Percy, like she was anxious to meet his eyes.

“Thank you for walking me home,” the girl mumbled. “It means a lot.”

Percy nodded his head. “I couldn’t let you walk home alone. That’s not exactly,” Percy made air quotes, “‘gentleman material’.”

“I wasn’t aware that you were a gentleman,” Annabeth said, sarcasm leaking out of her voice.

“You wound me, my darling,” Percy said placing a hand over his chest, where his heart should’ve been. He smiled at her gently and bent forward a bit like he was genuinely hurt by her words. “I am the most gentlemanly man I know. After my actions that I have performed for you today I would have thought you would’ve thought so as well.”

“Mhm,” Annabeth hummed the hint of a smile playing on her lips. She ignored the rest of his comment. “Well thank you again,” she said as she turned back to the boy and lowered herself a bit into a small curtsey. She turned around and pulled the key from her bag out quietly and began to unlock the front door and opened it up a bit. Percy was able to get a glance into the house and could see the foyer and the winding staircase up the second floor. Percy usually would’ve been the type to complain about these houses but it made sense for her to be living in a house like this, it was fit for her.

_It was fit for a princess._

Percy took her hand in his and Annabeth flinched at the sudden touch and Percy leaned down and pressed a kiss on her knuckles. “M’lady,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

Annabeth was blushing a bright red and she slammed her hand down to her side and she was smiling too, clearly unable to hide the hint of infatuation she was beginning to feel towards The Olympians member. The girl just nodded her head to him and turned on her heel once more and slipped into her house and shut the door behind her leaving Percy to stare awkwardly at the door and wonder just for a moment, if maybe this tutoring session was going to be better than he thought it was going to go.

About a week had past after their first meeting and it was the day before Percy’s first test in Brunner’s class after his tutoring session had begun. The library was quiet and had a faint smell of parchment paper lingering in the air. Sunlight streamed in through the windows of the library giving the place plenty of light for the other students that were scattered around the facility to read and do their work. It was remotely quiet, a casual Monday afternoon and nothing seemed to be bothering the students that were doing their work.

Giggles erupted from the back of the library and the blonde girl kicked the boy that had made her laugh under the table as she covered her mouth to try and muffle the sounds escaping her lips. The books that were scattered on the table around the two students were open and most of the work that was assigned to the boy was done, but the two continually got distracted over and over again.

“I’m just sayin’,” Percy said in a low voice, twirling his pencil in his hand, grinning from ear to ear. “He was in that wheelchair all the time when I was in middle school, I almost thought he was hiding the fact he was half horse or somethin’.”

Annabeth’s cheeks were rosy. “Why would you think that though?” She asked just as quietly, trying to speak quietly to not interrupt people who were actually studying. “That’s so weird.”

“I had an overactive imagination,” Percy said with a helpless shrug. “I still do.”

Annabeth giggled and shook her head. She wore her hair down that day, the blonde princess curls that sat atop of her pretty head sitting over her shoulders with a pink bow that held her hair in the back of her head. It was a pastel pink that matched her pastel pink swing dress with a black quarter note patch towards the end of the dress. And, if Percy wasn’t mistaken, she was wearing just the smallest hint of lipgloss.

She looked _radiant_.

“That’s funny,” she said with a smile lowering her hand. Her cheeks were still the softest of reds and her eyes were crinkled up into a smile. “You’re funny.”

Percy raised an eyebrow at the girl and he grinned just a bit in mild surprise. “Oh?” he asked teasingly. “Did Annabeth Chase just compliment me?”

Annabeth blushed a little more and she rolled her eyes crossing her own arms and stuck out her tongue at the boy. “Don’t let it get to your head, Jackson.”

It has been going back and forth between the two of them for the past ninety minutes. They continually teased and flirted with each other and Percy realized he wasn’t half bad at it as he thought he was. Annabeth was easy to flirt with especially since the first night when the two of them had walked home together. They knew a lot about each other now, they couldn’t just let go of those things the other had said. Poseidon has been right, he needed someone to relay his emotions on.

_“My mom works at Sweet on America,” Percy said his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. It must’ve been around seven in the evening, the sun was already setting._

_“That little candy store at Grand Central Station?” Annabeth asked as she walked along on the sidewalk, she had a small skip in her step. “I love going there.”_

_Percy nodded with a small smile. “Yeah. She always brings me home blue candies.”_

_“Why blue?” She looked at Percy curiously._

_The question made Percy smile just a bit, looking back at the girl quietly. “My old stepdad once said that there was no such thing as blue food to me and it made me really upset. So, after that day my mom just started bringing me home blue food and candies. It’s sort of our inside joke now.”_

_Annabeth smiled, “That sounds sweet.”_

_“Sweet_ America _?” Percy nudged her gently. “I’ll bring ya some blue candy tomorrow to keep us up during our study date.”_

_Annabeth grinned but at those words, the tips of her ears turning red with nervousness. “We’re calling it a date now?” Annabeth asked, the smile on her lips seeming to grow more as she asked the question. The two, not friends, walked close to each other along the sidewalk once in a while their shoulders brushing against each other’s._

_“Is it a bad thing I want to call it that?” Percy asked as the two turned down Annabeth’s street. The houses were bigger than Percy could ever live in, but he could see Annabeth living in these houses._

_“Hm. I don’t think it is.” Annabeth glances at him. “I think it’s cute.”_

Percy blinked a couple times bringing himself back to reality and looked down at the paper had handed back to him. It was filled with problems Annabeth had written down for Percy to practice. Checkmarks were littered on nearly every problem except number eighteen. Annabeth leaned forward and pointed to the problem.

“You forgot to put a negative in front of the five.” She smiled. “That’s important to do because without the negative you’ll have a completely different answer, resulting in you getting the question wrong.”

Percy nodded and looked over the rest of the nineteen problems. “So, technically if Brunner had taken this for a grade I woulda gotten an _A_?”

“That sounds about right,” Annabeth said with an affirmative nod of her head. “I’ll try to talk to Brunner tomorrow morning when I get to school so he can maybe replace this with one of the _F’s_ you have.” She began to close the books that were on the table silently and put them back in their respected shelves that they sat around. “You aren’t as bad as math as you claim you are, you know?”

Percy smiled. “Two compliments in one day? What did I eva’ do to deserve this?”

Annabeth rolled her eyes and reached on her tiptoes to put the books away silently on the topmost shelf. Percy shifted and slipped out of his chair silently and took the book out of her hands and put it away himself. Percy was only a few inches taller than Annabeth was and Annabeth gave him a side eye for helping her out.

“I could’ve done it,” Annabeth said with a small grin. “I’m not some damsel in distress, you know.”

Percy grinned and shook his head softly as he began walking over back to the table and started to stack up the papers he had been working on, cleaning up the table. In any other scenario, Percy would’ve left the cleaning to whoever he was with but this time around was different. He felt the need to prove himself to Annabeth. “I bet ya could’ve,” Percy said, “but if I didn’t help you then some other guy would’ve came around and helped you. Then I would’ve looked like a dick next to him and watched him steal ya heart instead of me doing that work.”

Annabeth giggled and gently nudged him. “Who said you were ever gonna steal my heart?” She grinned and took the papers from his hands, her cold fingertips brushing against his hand as she did so. “It sounds unrealistic. If anyone is gonna steal anyone’s heart between the two of us, it’s going to be me stealing yours.” Annabeth gave a side glance to The Olympians member who was running his eyes over her well groomed body and grinned more. “And by the looks of it, I seem to be winning.”

Percy raised his eyebrows at the girl and grinned shaking his head. “That’s crazy. I’m just admiring the artwork.”

Annabeth shoved him jokingly and walked back over to the table quietly and picked up her bag quietly, stuffing the papers into her bag. “C’mon. I gotta get going, I need to meet the girl’s back at the diner.” Without waiting for her friend to walk out with her, the blonde girl strolled out silently running a hand through her hair. Percy’s sea green gaze ran over her body once more and grinned to himself and ran to catch up with her and wrapped his arm about her casually.

They weren’t dating, that was clear. When people saw them in the hallway no one really gave any questions mainly because Annabeth made sure anyone who saw them in the hallway together made sure to stay quiet about the two of them flirting. Especially since Piper McLean or the other Olympian members that were Percy’s friends couldn’t find out. Neither Percy or Annabeth wanted their friends to be put in an awkward situation where they would have to get along.

“Do you feel ready for the test tomorrow?” Annabeth asked shrugging off the boy’s shoulder as the two of them walked out of the school building together. “You’ve been doing really well on our studying, especially after the work Brunner had given us to do in class today, I feel like you should be able to pass Brunner’s next test.”

“Ya think so?” Percy asked as he began to descend the steps, two at a time. “I don’t feel that confident. If anything I feel like I might get a _D_.”

“It’s better than an _F_ ,” Annabeth said as she got down beside Percy and looked at him with her eyebrows raised. “I believe in you.”

Percy smiled a bit and looked down at Annabeth quietly and he felt the urge to just cup her face in his hands and kiss her but he knew that wouldn’t be appropriate. Not out in public like this where anyone would see and the rumors would spread like wild. Both of them were in a tricky situation and Percy, for a moment, despised Jason and Piper for having them in this predicament. It had only been a few days but Percy genuinely liked Annabeth, she was smart and patient with Percy unlike the rest of his teachers. She helped him understand how to solve problems and gave him breaks between certain questions knowing he couldn’t work straight through. Annabeth seemed to be the same way except her brain just worked a bit faster. She got jumpy when she had to sit down for long periods of time and often got distracted when she was supposed to be paying attention. In a lot of ways she was like Percy and Percy admired her for that.

Percy flicked his eyes around or a moment just double checking if there was anyone around before taking the girl’s hand in his own and leaning forward and keeping his voice low, despite the fact that no one is around. “How much more, Wise Girl?”

“It’s been three days, Percy,” Annabeth said softly with a shake of her head. “I told you not yet.”

“But _when_?”

It was his desperate attempt to have a proper date with her. Annabeth clearly wanted to and he could see that but she clearly was having second thoughts jus because of Piper and Percy really did not want her to be having second thoughts at all. She had to give him a chance because despite all the shit Annabeth had heard they were just rumors and Percy was not Jason.

There was a cat call and Percy and Annabeth practically jumped away from each other and whizzed their heads around to see a tall looming figure walking over to them bearing his teeth in the most utmost disturbing grin that Percy found himself cringing and unable to look away. The boy’s blonde hair was slick back with much grease and he wore a uniform that Percy had the urge to just trip him for wearing. He had two others with him, wearing a nearly identical uniform and looking between the two friends threateningly.

“Well won't you look at that,” Octavian Ashford said with a grin. “If it isn’t Percy Jackson and his new girlfriend.”

“I’m not his girlfriend,” Annabeth said harshly, narrowing her eyes at the boy dangerously.

Octavian laughed. “You aren’t?” he asked, clearly focusing his interest in on her now. “Well, you should come over with me and my guys. We’re heading over to the diner right now to grab a milkshake. I’ll buy you one, on me.” He made a move to wrap his arm around her shoulder and the girl dodged him, moving away from him and into Percy who proceeded to move her behind him.

“Piss off, Tavvy,” Percy hissed, using the nickname he knew Octavian absolutely despised. “Why don’t you go pick on a girl who looks like you?” Percy grinned. “Like one of your goons.”

“Drop dead twice, Jackson.”

“What,” Percy said scowling, “and look like you?”

Octavian cursed loudly and flipped him off throwing a glare between the two of them. “This isn’t the end of it, Jackson,” he swore and turned on his heel and walked away, clearly miffed by Percy’s comeback and he walked away, towards the direction of the diner.

Annabeth sighed and rubbed her arms. “God, I hate him.”

Percy nodded his head in agreement as he watched the boy walk away, clenching and unclenching his hands silently. Octavian Ashford was possibly the worst human being to ever be walking the Earth. He looked down on everyone who even showed him the least bit of dislike and he showed no sympathy to those who were being picked on. He was the opposite of what it meant to be a member of The Olympians, those who protect people with the full extent to make sure there was no more people bothering others in the streets of Manhattan.

Percy found himself remembering the last Olympian meeting he had attended to last week, Zeus’s words ringing in his ears.

_“The members of SPQR are causing too much mayhem in the streets and we must out a stop to them at once.” Zeus pointed a finger at Percy. “You’re quest is to put a stop to it. Kill the leader of SPQR.” Zeus paused as if to let the words sink in. “You need to kill Octavian Ashford.”_


	7. Romantic Gestures

“So,” Percy said as the two walked together silently towards the diner, “how do you know Octavian?”

Annabeth has been silent for nearly the past ten minutes since the two of them had left the school. Seeing Octavian had thrown her for a loop, it hadn’t been the first time he aggressively made a move on her but it had been the first time someone had actually helped her get out of the situation. Percy was kind enough to do so, and Annabeth found herself growing more infatuated with him as the time went by. He actually listened to her and anytime he seemed bothered by something he would confide in her about it and she would try to help him. He’d even stopped falling asleep in class.

Annabeth exhaled. “Um,” she rubbed her arms, “I went to primary school with him.” Annabeth shrugged unsure if she should admit the rest of their history together. Octavian did know her and it was a real dick move for her to act like he didn’t remember her. Then again, Annabeth _did_ break up with him for a good damned reason. “I was friends with him in middle school.”

Percy was quiet for a moment. “Didn’t ya date him in middle school?” he asked, seeming to recall the events of possible rumors that circulated around Annabeth and Octavian when they were together. Nothing about sex exactly, but most of the time when people caught the couple they were arguing violently with each other. Their last argument ended with Octavian slapping her across the face and Annabeth kneeing him in the groin. That was their break up. Her mother had been furious.

Her mother, Athena, had been the one to set up their relationship, saying that the two of them had to be together for a business proposal between her and another older individual. Annabeth has never known who it was but her mother had slowly let the incident go over time.

“I prefer not to remember that time in my life,” Annabeth said making a face of disgust. “It isn’t worth remembering in my opinion. He was revolting and showed absolutely no interest in me other than just checking me out and just kissin’ me.” Annabeth was positive he had never had a girlfriend in his life other than her.

Percy groaned. “I didn’ need to hear it.”

Annabeth laughed and shook her head. “I didn’t need to remember it.”

Percy smiled and nudged Annabeth gently. He looked happy, he was practically radiating that emotion and it made Annabeth smile a little more, the happiness he had was practically contagious. “Well luckily you don’t havta deal with that anymore.”

Annabeth giggled. “Oh, like you aren’t tryin’ to get a kiss out of me,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

Percy grinned and made a vague motion with his hands. “Listen, have you seen how ya look? I’m pretty sure every guy in the school would beg to get a little smooch out of ya.”

“How romantic,” Annabeth said sarcastically. “I’m jus’ falling for you more and more the more you speak about wantin’ ta kiss me.” She spoke in an octave higher and batted her eyelashes in his direction in a flirtatious manner and forcing her New Yorker accent on her lips. “Though, I will admit I do think the same thing as you.” The blonde girl sideyed him with a small grin. “Have ya ever kissed a girl before?”

“I don’t wanna make ya jealous,” Percy teased.

“Oh,” Annabeth said. Her grin grew as she said that one word. “Who was the lucky lady?”

Percy laughed. “I don’t kiss an’ tell.”

“You’re gonna eat those words, Jackson,” Annabeth said as she poked his side, hard. “Imma bet that as soon as I kiss you, you’re gonna go ratting it out to your boys at The Olympians.”

Percy laughed and Annabeth was able to see the diner up ahead and she got a sad feeling in her stomach, realizing that she would have to leave Percy soon. She didn’t want to do that, because talking with Percy was so easy. She felt like she didn’t have to hide anything from him. Anything she said was valid to him and that was the kind of friend she’d always wanted. With Piper now lately though, Annabeth couldn’t really tell Piper everything that was on her mind. Annabeth couldn’t tell anyone what was on her mind.

“Oh?” Percy asked, his hand accidentally brushing against hers now as he removed his hands from his leather pockets on his jacket. “I wouldn’t degrade you like that,” Percy said with a gently smile. “I think I don’t want anyone else to know what your lips taste like.”

Annabeth smiled more and the two of them paused as they arrived at the entrance of Half-Blood Diner. Music flooded out of the place and teens lingered outside of the vicinity. Some had shuffled out of Percy’s way when they saw him but paid him and Annabeth no particular attention. It wasn’t anything negative, it was just something that had become a habit. Seeing Annabeth with him made them just a little less nervous.

“Now,” Annabeth said turning herself to him ninety degrees and meeting his sea green eyes, “ _that’s_ romantic.” The blonde girl leaned up and pressed a kiss onto his cheek, a quick one; Annabeth notice his cheeks begin to dust with blush and he turned his head away, as if to not let the girl see him in his vulnerable moment. There was no denying that Annabeth wanted to kiss him but she held herself back. It wasn’t the time, especially not now.

“See you tomorrow,” Annabeth said with a small wave and walked into the diner silently, leaving The Olympians member to stare after her blankly, still a blushing mess.

Annabeth threw the door open and walked in being instantly blasted with the cold air of the diner and she saw Piper and Reyna sitting together at their usual table. Strangely enough though, Calypso seemed to be absent from the group. It hadn’t been the first time, Calypso always had something to do. She had other friends then just the ‘group’ but it was weird to not see her around. Not to mention Annabeth wasn’t sure who these other ‘friends’ were.

Annabeth slipped into the seat beside Piper. “Hey,” she greeted a bit too casually as she smiled between the two girls. Annabeth still had a cheeky smile playing on her lips at the memory of Percy’s surprised look after she kissed his cheek. “What’re ya guys up to?”

“You look happy,” Reyna commented with a light smile. She had a strawberry milkshake in her hand and she took a careful sip out of it as she examined Annabeth quietly. “Did the studying with Percy Jackson go well?”

Annabeth nodded her head, trying to rid of her smile. “Oh, yeah. He was pretty good at listening. I think he’s going to pass Mr. Brunner’s next test.” Annabeth unable to help herself smiled a little more at that thought, because that also meant that Annabeth was doing her job right. It was something that Annabeth found herself able to be able to smile about for once and even though Annabeth hated to admit it, she was excited to see Percy again tomorrow. She was excited to see him in general.

Piper pursed her lips and scowled a bit. “ _That’s_ the good news?” she asked a bit dumbfounded. “I thought he was going to be terrible.” Piper’s words sounded bitter and it was clear she wasn’t exactly still warmed up to the idea that Annabeth would have to be spending all of her time around the very notorious member of The Olympians. “I mean there must be more to why your smiling, did you see a cute boy outside. I could’ve sworn I saw Octavian Ashford walk in not too long ago.” Piper poked the girl’s side teasingly. “That’s why your all happy and blushin’, huh?”

“You’re disgusting,” Annabeth declared with a shake of her head.

A figure pushed Annabeth further into the booth and she blinked in surprise looking over and seeing Octavian Ashford grinning at her. “Speak of the devil,” Annabeth mumbled looking at Piper silently, begging for some help.

The stringy blonde hair boy wrapped his arm around the girl’s shoulders. “I saw you with that Jackson boy outside of school earlier,” Octavian said cupping Annabeth’s cheek and turning her to him. “What was that about?”

Annabeth pushed the boy’s hand away from her, scowling at him angrily. “Piss off,” Annabeth said with a roll of her eyes. “What I do in m freetime is none of your business.”

“I think it’s most of my business. Especially since we’re meant to be together.”

“Octavian.” Reyna’s voice rang out between the two ex-lovers. Her dark eyes narrowed dangerously at Octavian causing the boy to tense up as he looked over at her. “Annabeth clearly does not wish to speak with you. I would suggest leaving now and if you don’t,” Reyna’s lips stretched into a smirk, “I think you know the consequences.”

Octavian scowled at Reyna and pushed himself out of the red vinyl boot shooting one last look at Annabeth before going off with his crew. Ever since Annabeth could remember being friends with Reyna, she’d always had her back. Reyna knew what made Annabeth uncomfortable and if anyone was causing someone trouble in their group, Reyna made sure they never heard the end of it. Reyna had a dangerous reputation in the school as an almost powerful leader, Annabeth was surprised she and Reyna got along as well as they did.

“Thank you, Reyna,” Annabeth breathed out rubbing her arms anxiously

“No problem,” Reyna responded as one of the waitresses dropped off a basket of fries for the table. Quietly, each girl took one and began to eat.

“So,” Piper said and looked at Annabeth silently, “you _were_ happy because you were with Percy Jackson? You’re smile is gone now.”

“I saw Octavian. Of course I’m not smiling anymore.” Annabeth sighed. Annabeth had a feeling he tried advancing on her again because Percy wasn’t around and Octavian must’ve known Percy would’ve snapped him like a twig if he saw him trying to make a move again. The idea made butterflies erupt in her stomach at the idea of Percy being overprotective of her. “Stop being worried, Piper.” Annabeth said looking at the brunette girl. “I _hate_ Percy Jackson. I wouldn’t ever betray you like that by becoming friends with your ex-boyfriend’s best friend. Or any of The Olympians members for that matter.”

Piper seemed reluctant to believe Annabeth but she just smiled anyways, seeming to take in those words. Annabeth had no reason to lie according to Piper after all. Piper smiled big and wrapped her arms around her friend. “Thank you,” she said, the smile evident in her voice.

Annabeth sighed a bit in relief. “Of course,” she responded, wishing, if only for a moment, that she could take those words back.


	8. Spare Him His Life

For once Percy wasn't late to another one of The Olympians meeting. Percy had brought it up to his father that he had to take tutoring lessons to be able to graduate and after having a long conversation with the heads of the gang, the leaders decided they would wait until Percy finished his tutoring to begin the meeting. If Percy was late, it was only by ten minutes. The son of Poseidon knocked on the door quietly, swiping his hair out of his face. Frank Zhang opened the door up and grinned at the eighteen year old. "Hey dude," Frank said greeting him with a pat on the shoulder. "You're just in time."

Percy stepped in through the doors just as Frank shut them behind the son of Poseidon. "Just in time fo' what?" Percy asked looking back at his friend in question. Quiet chatter lingered in the room that Percy noticed and the room wasn't filled up like a usual meeting was. Not all the seats were filled at the front of the room with all the leaders. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades were all missing from their seats.

Frank gestured for Percy to follow him as he weaved through the room and pointed to the door that led to a different room that Poseidon, Zeus and Hades usually came through at the beginning of meetings. "Your dad told me that he wants you to meet with them when you came. Jason, Thalia and Nico are in there right now. Not sure what they're talking about though."

Percy, confused, nodded his head and walked from Frank and through the metal door that separated the two rooms and Percy saw it was just a small room. It must've been the size of his bedroom with concrete walls that felt a bit claustrophobic upon entering. All six members stood in the room and paused mid conversation to look over at Percy. Jason smiled seeing his best friend and gave the boy a slight wave.

"Hey, Perce," Jason greeted eagerly.

"Finally," Thalia grumbled. She wore her jacket that day, a white swing skirt on with complimentary black and white saddle shoes that Percy had noticed were becoming quite a trend lately at school with the girls. "You missed a lot."

"Fill me in," Percy said walking over and standing beside Nico who looked bored out of his mind. He was holding a flower in his hand, a rose Percy noticed, and was twirling the stem between his thumb and forefinger. For a moment Percy had the need to ask where he had gotten it from but decided it wasn't the time to ask, especially since Nico's father was standing right there.

"Thalia," Nico decided to fill in, "is dropping her position as becoming the new head of The Olympians and instead wishes to join Artemis in her feminist movement for allowing women the right to vote." It didn't sound like it bothered him too much, he seemed a bit impressed if Percy knew any better. Percy raised his eyebrows and looked at Thalia in question.

"Really?" Percy asked tilting his head over to his cousin. "What brought ya to this?"

Thalia scowled at him and had her arms crossed over her chest definitely, like she thought Percy was disapproving of her choices. Percy wasn't doing that though, he was thoroughly impressed with her because Thalia was strong and independent and in Percy's opinion if she was going to be the new leader of The Olympians (which she will now not be) she had to be shown as an equal or no one would ever take her seriously. Considering how most men already looked at women, it was most likely not something that was going to work so easily.

"Why doya care?" Thalia countered.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Because we're cousins, Pine Cone Head. If you had stuck around long enough I would've had to deal with everything you told me to do. So sadly, I have to give a shit about your life."

Thalia stuck her tongue out at Percy good naturedly and smiled a bit.

"So," Zeus said, interrupting the conversation between the two cousins, "you're quitting The Olympians?" It was a question full of heavy thought but Thalia wasn't one to allow her father to make her feel guilty of her actions, either way that didn't even seem to be remotely the issue.

"No," Thalia said with a shake of her head. "I'm givin' up my position as the next heir to the throne." She smiled as she looked over at her younger brother who was just staring at Thalia in wonderment. "And I want you to give it ta Jason."

Zeus scowled for a moment, like he wasn't understanding Thalia's request. "Pardon?" he asked, clearly confused.

Thalia looked at her father, removing her hands from her hostile demeanor on her chest and sat them on her hips, jutting out her right hip. "I don't wanna be the next ruler of The Olympians." Thalia sighed and placed her hands down. "Women are a joke in this country. If I were ever going to run this gang, I need to be respected. Artemis is running something that could change the course of how women will be respected."

Zeus looked skeptical by his daughters words and Percy couldn't blame him. If Percy's life hadn't been all about protecting his mother, a woman he looked up to all his life, he would have called bullshit on Thalia's words but... it wasn't like this now. He understood where Thalia was coming from and if it weren't for Zeus, Poseidon and Hades's intimidating demeanors, he would have agreed with Thalia and told her to fight the system. Break the rules.

They were here though and Percy knew if he opened his mouth, Zeus would have no problem striking him. He's done it before, he would do it again.

Zeus slowly averted his lightning blue gaze to is son and Jason just looked at Thalia with a big grin on his face. The glasses he wore were askew on his face and he looked like a child in that moment, looking up to the big sibling that broke the rules. Someone Jason had depended on all his life and was going to fight the system and fight for what she believed in. Percy couldn't help but admire their relationship and wonder just what it would've been like to have an older sibling to look up to in the way that Jason looked up to Thalia.

"Jason."

Jason blinked and looked up at his father quietly, a question in his eyes. "Yes, Father?" he asked politely. Despite the fact that he was raised by Thalia, someone who was born to break the rules Jason was his own person and he was polite to his elders.

Zeus seemed reluctant to say his next words, he inhaled and exhaled softly as he looked at his son.

Jason wasn't weak. He was strong and like Percy spent some free time to work out back at Percy's house when the two of them had time together. Jason was tall, maybe an half an inch taller than Percy even though he was younger than the son of Poseidon. His blonde hair was combed back on the top of his head and he always had a bright look in his eyes, pure innocence leaking out of them.

Zeus sighed softly and he offered his son the smallest of smiles. It was rare to see Zeus smile, in fact he hardly ever did it. The times he did though, it was only to Thalia or Jason. This was one of those moments. "Since your sister does not wish to run The Olympians after my time is up," Zeus said quietly, "would you like to become the next heir to the throne?"

Percy couldn't help but grin widely at his cousin / best friend. He could see Nico at the corner of his eye who was looking up from the rose he had in his hands to look back up at Jason with a small smile.

Jason's blue eye widened in surprise and he smiled. "Really?" he asked excitedly, a little jump when he asked.

Zeus smiled and he nodded his head. "You are the only person in this room named Jason." He placed one hand on Jason's shoulder. "Would you like to be the leader of The Olympians when you become twenty-five?"

That was the age limit that the three brothers had agreed was the best time that their children could go ahead and take their positions. Their oldest child would take hold of the throne and run the chapter that they are destined to run. Nico was currently the oldest child that Hades had and the youngest out of any of The Olympians heirs. He was only fifteen. The rest of them were sixteen and older.

"Yes," Jason said with an affirmative nod of his head. "I would be honored to become the next leader of The Olympians."

 

It sounded ceremonious even though it really wasn't. Thalia still stuck around in the meeting but she no longer sat behind her father like the heirs had to do. All twelve of the children had to sit behind their parents as the meeting went on and overlook the sea of "heroes" as Zeus called out different heroes as they talk about the objectives that they were given for the week.

Jason was sitting behind his father he looked as if it was no big deal and Percy couldn't help but notice that he was a bit fidgety with excitement and he couldn't help but blame him. Becoming the person that would soon lead a gang of nearly two hundred members was something that was hard, but Percy knew Jason was going to do a good job at it.

Percy had been in The Olympians longer than Jason had been, having been recruited at the age of twelve, Jason had only recently joined about a year ago. That was why Zeus seemed just a bit reluctant to actually give Jason the position of the official heir. Now, he would have to learn everything Thalia had been learning since she was a child. That was going to be a hell of a task to do and Percy knew that he and Nico were going to have to help Jason on the side to get up to speed where Thalia was.

"Percy Jackson."

Percy flinched and stood up from his chair, realizing that he would have to recite what exactly he had accomplished his... _quest_.

Zeus didn't turn his chair but everyone looked up from the crowd, including Thalia to hear what he was going to say.

"How has everything been going regarding the SPQR leader?"

Percy, realizing he had nothing because he had been so caught up with Annabeth recently, realized he was going to have to wing it. "Well," Percy said slowly, "I currently haven't been able to catch Octavian alone and I haven't been able to form a well thought out plan to have him alone and away from his crew to be able and kill him."

Percy couldn't see Zeus's expression so the boy had to only assume that he wasn't too angry that Percy hadn't done anything .

"I see," Zeus said after a moment. "And are you trying to formulate a plan or are you just waiting for us to take matters into our own hands?"

"No, sir," Percy said, pushing his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. "I'm beginning to have an idea on how exactly I'm going to rid of Octavian," Percy lied, staring straight ahead at the exit door and his mind wandered for just a moment to Annabeth. She was smart, she could probably make a plan.

That wasn't going to happen though, because while Annabeth made have been an absolute genius, no matter how much she liked Percy she would never be with him after this plan was set in stone.

"Two more weeks, Jackson," Zeus said, turning his head to Percy for the first time, a scowl resting on his face. "Or you're out of The Olympians."


	9. Tell You All My Secrets

Annabeth had managed to finish the calculus test in under an hour, which left her to sit at her desk waiting for the bell to ring for the day to end. The classroom was quiet, the low rumble of the air conditioning units and the scratches of the pencil lead against the math test being the only sounds that were being heard in the classroom. The fluorescent lights flickered in the classroom once in a while, just begging for the bulbs to be replaced already.

 Annabeth had her head in her hand, looking down at her desk blankly seeing the carved words along the perimeter of her desk. Mr. Brunner had a few "troubled" classes with students who weren't the best people in the school. In the past, Annabeth would have thought that the troubled kids he had was the rest of Percy's entourage but after learning more about him the past week she knew that they weren't like that. Don't judge a book by it's cover. 

Annabeth's gray eyes flickered over to Percy momentarily and saw his eyebrows furrowed together as he was trying to solve the question he was currently on. Annabeth's mind found itself swirling into a pit of mixed emotions she felt whenever she was around Percy Jackson. In Annabeth's mind everything about him was just so... intriguing. He had the most pleasing looks to admire, Annabeth always found herself staring at him because of it and Percy teased her to no end over it. 

Piper looked up from her test and over at Annabeth and smiled gently at her friend to which Annabeth returned the smile and turned her head back to the front of the room where she could see Mr. Brunner seemed to be already grading her test.

It was also beginning to get increasingly more difficult to hide the fact that Annabeth was growing more and more infatuated with the notorious Percy Jackson. Piper still showed her hatred towards the boys and Annabeth knew that no matter what, Piper was never going to budge about how those boys truly looked in her eyes.

Annabeth sighed softly and tapped her foot against the tiles in the classroom. 

Annabeth Chase was the smartest girl in school, she could get away with this no problem. After all Piper would be leaving the city after school ended and headed towards Harvard University where she had been accepted in by her high marks. Annabeth has also been accepted into Harvard but she didn't want to go and instead accepted a position in Cornell University to study industrial labor. Annabeth's particular study of interest was in the field of architecture and design.

Percy sighed softly and put his pencil down and stood from his seat and took his test up to Mr. Brunner who looked impressed that Percy managed to finish the test second and the teacher looked at Annabeth with a smile of approval and began to grade the test quietly.

As Percy passed by her desk he tossed her a confident beam and slid back in his desk. 

Annabeth felt her cheeks turn rosy at his troublemaker smile and she put her head down on her desk. 

Annabeth was really having a hell of a time trying to keep her cool around him.

When the bell for the end of the period rang all the students got up and turned their tests in. Annabeth told Piper to go on without her and Piper shot Percy a hard look before going out the door and walking off with Calypso and Reyna down to Half-Blood Diner. When Annabeth looked back over at Percy she noticed as Octavian Ashford walked past him and smacked the back of his head, causing Percy to flinch and wince at the sudden contact.

 As soon as the last student filed out of the classroom, Annabeth beamed and practically skipped over to Mr. Brunner's desk and leaned over, trying to get a peak of Percy's paper but the teacher had seemed to have hid it knowing just how Annabeth was going to be about it. The blonde girl pouted sadly and crossed her arms.

"Mr. Brunner," she whined. "What did Percy get on his test?" 

Percy walked over behind Annabeth and stood beside her, his hands in the pockets of his jacket looking at Mr. Brunner's desk and sighed. "Did I fail it?" he asked with a hint of disappointment in his voice. The confidence that was all over his face just minutes ago, now gone from sight. Annabeth reached out and looped her arm through his, trying to be the comforting figure in the room. Annabeth may not have been dating him (yet) but she was still his friend. 

Mr. Brunner, the prude he was, finally looked up from his desk and looked at the two students over his reading glasses quietly. "No, Mr. Jackson you did not fail the test," he said with a small smile. 

"You really failed it," Annabeth joked teasingly.

Percy groaned and let go of Annabeth's arm. "Wise Girl," Percy complained looking at the blonde girl that stood beside him. "This is serious."

"And so am I," she responded, teasingly nudging him. The girl returned her attention back to the calculus teacher, who was just watching the two students tease each other, with a pleading look. "Can you please tell us the grade?" she asked with a pout.

Mr. Brunner chuckled and pulled out a test from under a stack of papers and held it to him, so that the grade was not yet visible to the two students. "Percy," Mr. Brunner said, clearly trying to stall this very important announcement, "I need you to mentally prepare yourself for this revelation."

 Percy winced and nods softly.

 Slowly, Mr. Brunner turned the test paper over and Annabeth felt herself catch her breath and a huge smile began to form on her lips. The blonde girl grabbed onto Percy's arm and practically started jumping up and down in excitement. Percy's sea green eyes examined the paper and his face lit up. "Are ya serious?"

 The sunlight outside shone on the paper and Annabeth almost found the grade admirable despite the fact she had never gotten a grade lower than an A-. (Annabeth had only gotten that grade because she had spent the night before having her... breakup with Octavian and had spent most of the night overthinking everything that had happened.)

But a B- after only a week of Annabeth tutoring Percy? That was something that Annabeth had to be proud of.

Mr. Brunner nodded his head and smiled at Percy. "I'm very impressed with your work, Mr. Jackson," the calculus teacher commented. "And I expect you to be doing this more often from now on. If you can do this for the next three tests I'm going to be giving the class, I have a feeling you just might be able to graduate." 

Percy beamed, the biggest smile on his lips with the brightest look in his eyes because Percy was confident that he could do it. Annabeth knew he could as well, he was well on his way to having a great education.

 "Thank you Mr. Brunner," Percy said with a smile. "So much."

 Mr. Brunner shook his head and smiled at Annabeth who was just standing there, still holding onto Percy's arm in excitement. "Don't thank me," the older man said with a small knowing smile. "Thank Miss Chase here." Mr. Brunner gestured to Annabeth who's smile faded and was replaced with a dusting of blush against her cheeks. "She's the one who did all the work after all."

 Percy looked over at Annabeth, looking momentarily surprised like he had forgotten that she was there. "Oh," he said after a moment and smiled at Annabeth. "Ya right. Ya did help me din't ya?"

Annabeth nodded her head with a smile to him in return, a shy one as she was unsure as to how exactly he was going to respond to that when Percy said two words that Annabeth could have never imagined just a week ago that any of The Olympians members would have ever said: "Thank you."

It wasn't short after that did Percy and Annabeth exit the classroom together and noticing that no one else was in the hallways to see anything that they were doing, Percy caught Annabeth's hand in his and they walked together. It was a funny feeling to Annabeth, to like someone in the way that she liked Percy. He had a way to make her feel like everything was possible. He had a way to make her smile more then she ever thought was possible to smile. Percy gave her a bit of hope for everything. 

"We should celebrate," Annabeth said letting go of his hand quietly. A couple of students passed them in the halls, talking excitedly with each other with their plans for the weekend. "Just the two of us."

Percy smiled and opened up the doors of the school entrance and the two walked out, descending the stairs of the school together. Percy stuffed his hands in his pockets as they began walking off in the direction they usually walked off in towards Half-Blood Diner. His eyes scanned over the area around them, as if looking for someone when he looked back at Annabeth and nodded. "Sure."

He had a strange look in his eyes. Like he was getting distracted by something. Annabeth, the girl full of questions, asked, "What's wrong?"

Percy blinked, seeming surprised by the question before quickly shaking his head. "Nothing," he responded, flickering his eyes once again around as they began walking down the sidewalk together. "Just... stressed."

 "Do The Olympians got something on you?" It was a strange question, but valid. While The Olympians were a band of "heroic" people, they did have a tendency to create just as many problems as they fixed.

 Percy tilted his head from side to side, as if thinking about it. "Kinda," he responded reluctantly. "It's hard ta explain." He glanced at Annabeth. "An' confidential."

 Annabeth knew she should've stopped asking questions by then. She knew there was absolutely no reason for her to be getting involved in whatever drama Percy was a part of but she still ended up being curious. She wanted to know more about who exactly The Olympians were. Anybody could have been in it according to Percy, not everyone just casually wore their leather jackets and not everybody was as proud to be in the group as Percy and his friends were. According to Percy, the leader of The Olympians was someone who had a lot of power in New York City and people feared him for that power. If people knew he was running the gang he would possibly be the most powerful man in the entire state of New York.

 "Does it have to deal with someone at school?" Annabeth asked after a moment of silence. "Because you act like this at school sometimes, like your worried someone is after you."

"Are ya writing a book about this?" Percy asked teasingly. Annabeth rolled her eyes, the tips of her ears turning a bit red out of embarrassment and Percy chuckled and wrapped his arm around the blonde girl. "I'm just messin with ya," he said and leaned down, getting close to her. He said, "An' to tell ya the truth, yeah. It has to do with someone at school."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "It's Octavian isn't it?" she muttered, almost as if she was more so asking herself the question instead of Percy. "I mean... I see tha way he bothers you sometimes in class. He throws those childish spitballs and I can see it does annoy you. And in the hallways too, people are always noticing that you too are always talking smack to each other." Annabeth looked at Percy.

"Ya got a sharp eye," Percy mused softly and smiled giving Annabeth a side eye. "Yeah. It's him." He sighed softly. "He's a part of this gang that likes to cause problems that we, at The Olympians, always have to end up fixing." Percy made a vague hand gesture, rolling his hand showing that it happened over and over again. "And Zeus wants me to... put a stop to the SPQR."

"SPQR?" Annabeth asked.

Percy said, "Yeah. It's the name of their gang. It's short for Stupid Pretentious Quoniams of Rome or some bullshit like that."

Annabeth burst out laughing and covered her mouth instantly.

Percy grinned and shrugged.

"You've totally been wanting to say that for a while haven't you?" Annabeth asked putting her hands down but still smiling.

 "Nah. I don't really know what quoniam means."

"At least you got one latin word in there," Annabeth said with a small shrug. "Even though it literally means-" 

"Don't," Percy said, "ruin it for me. I've been saying that phrase for years and I want to believe that it actually is a pretty good idea of what it means." 

"It isn't at all," Annabeth said.

"I keep forgetting your smart," Percy complained. "Way smarter than you probably need to be." He sighed in annoyance, but good naturedly. "So what's the _actual_ meaning of SPQR?"

Annabeth beamed. Despite the fact that Percy absolutely found Annabeth annoying at times because of her "knowledge" on many subjects he always seemed to allow her the moment to actually tell the facts out and teach Percy a piece of information ot two. "It means _Senātus Populusque Rōmānus_." 

Percy nodded. "And _that_ means?"

"The Senate of Roman People."

"So they _are_ pretentious," Percy said with a shake of his head. "Disgusting."

Annabeth laughed again as they reached a small candy shop that the blonde girl had passed by thousands of times. It was named Sweet on America, it was the place that Percy's mom worked at on a daily basis. The place where Percy always seemed to be buying his blue candy.

    Percy smiled at Annabeth lightly, glancing at her. "Is this place okay?"

Annabeth could see one woman working inside, her hair pulled back and wearing an apron as she spoke to a couple of younger children who were trying to buy some sweets. Annabeth could only assume that was Percy's mother.

Annabeth said, "It's perfect."


	10. Sweet on America

As soon as you stepped foot into Sweet on America, the scent of chocolate was the first thing that hit you. The scent of sweet milk chocolate and the scent of sweet sugar lingering in the air was all that was surrounding the shop of Sweet on America. Percy remembered as a child when Sally Jackson would come home and would give Percy a big hug and he could remember the way her hair would smell after a long day at work. The smell of the sweets was the one thing that brought him excitement to come home, other than seeing his loving mother once again.

That scent was what he smelled now and it brought him nostalgia.

When he glanced back at Annabeth, he could see how her stormy gray eyes were scanning the place, like it was a blueprint and she was noticing the little details of the place. Like this was the way Annabeth was going to figure Percy out, she would be able to understand him a little more if she picked together this shop.

And she wasn’t wrong.

Percy quickly walked over to his mother, passing by the customers as they strolled out of the building and smiled at the older woman. “Hey Ma,” he greeted enthusiastically, a bit more enthusiastically than any other boy would have done for their mom in front of a girl. This was Sally Jackson though and if Annabeth was really intending to stick around Percy like she showed, she needed to see the side of himself that proved that he loved his mom more than anyone else in the world.

“Hi, sweetie,” Sally greeted as her son arrived at the counter with a big grin on his face. She noticed Annabeth coming up behind him and smiled a bit more. “And you… must be Annabeth? You are as beautiful as Percy described.”

Annabeth flushed at those words but her polite smile didn’t once waver. “Thank you,” she said with a nod of her head. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Percy has spoken very highly of you, Mrs. Jackson.”

“I sure hope he did,” Sally teased, tossing her son a look. “I was the one who held him in my stomach for nine months and raised him for eighteen years. I deserve some recognition for that.”

Annabeth laughed and Percy grinned reaching out and pinching his mother’s left cheek. “Of course, Ma,” Percy said with an eye roll. “You know I gotta respect women like you always taught me to do.”

Sally chuckled softly behind the counter and reached over and pinched Percy’s cheek, to which Percy just smiled brightly at his mother. “That’s right.” She let go of Percy’s cheek and sighed looking at the two of them and smiled. “So what’s the occasion that you finally brought Annabeth over so I could meet her?” Sally asked.

Percy propped himself on the candy shop counter and smiled. “Well,” Percy said, “as ya may well know, Wise Girl here has been giving me some tutoring lessons.”

“Yes,” Sally said with a nod, “I do recall that.”

Annabeth nudged Percy with a smile pushing him aside. “Today we had our first calculus test since I started givin’ Percy here tutoring lessons. I’ve been helping him study for this test all week and the grade he got on the test was-”

Percy clasped his hand over Annabeth’s mouth, shutting her up before she could blurt out the news before Percy did. “Hear this, I got a B Minus, Ma.”

Annabeth then proceeded to bite Percy’s hand.

“Ow!” Percy complained as he pulled his hand back from the blonde girl. She hadn’t bit him that hard but it was a natural response from the sudden sensation. “What was that for?” Percy asked as he held his own hand pouting at Annabeth. There was a triumphant smile on her lips and Percy couldn’t help but marvel at how beautiful her smile was.

“That was for cutting me off mid sentence,” Annabeth said crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. “Don’t _ever_ do that again.”

Sally Jackson smiled at the two of them, the brightest look in her eyes as she did so looking at her son with so much admiration for his hard work. “Percy!” she exclaimed smiling. “That’s amazing! I’m so proud of you.”

Percy looked over at his mom and he forgot about Annabeth for a moment seeing how proud his mother was for him. Percy always had trouble in school because of his ADHD and his dyslexia and Sally knew he was trying. Seeing him now managing to climb his way back up after all of his struggling seemed to make her immensely proud of him.

“Thanks Ma,” Percy said giving her a lopsided grin. “But I think you should be thanking Annabeth, she’s the one who did all the hard work.”

Annabeth’s cheeks dusted pink at those words. “Uh-Uhm,” Annabeth stuttered out. “No. There’s really no need for that…”

Sally Jackson moved to the other side of the counter and pulled Annabeth into a motherly hug which seemed to throw Annabeth ofguard, like she never seemed to recieve this much affection before. “Of course I have to thank you, dear!” Sally said smiling. “You’ve really helped out Percy and that means so much to me!”

Annabeth glanced at Percy and he could see the way she looked at her was like there were a thousand things she wanted to tell him in that moment. Like those secrets she had been trying to figure out when she had first walked into Sweet On America were finally answered. Percy couldn't’ blame her either, because his mother was the true reason he had joined The Olympians, because the gang was the only way he knew was going to protect her.

That must’ve been the reason why at least. It was the only reason that made sense to Annabeth.

“Well,” Annabeth said with a smile, “I was really happy to help. Percy has been such a sweetheart to me.”

“A sweetheart, huh?” Percy asked with a grin. “That’s new.”

Annabeth looked at Percy and gave him a look that could’ve killed him on the spot if looks could kill. “Can it, Jackson. This isn’t your conversation.”

Percy gaped at her, looking mockingly offended. "Don’t speak to me in that manner in front of my ma. What’s wrong with you?” The hint of a smile peeked through Percy’s lips. “Were ya raised in a barn?”

“Perseus Jackson,” Sally said as she let go of Annabeth and raised her eyebrows over at her son, her brown eyes glowering at him in disappointment. “Don’t you speak to a lady with that tone. I thought you said you treated women with respect. Or were you lying about that?”

Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest and grinned looking at Percy once over. “Yeah Percy,” Annabeth said mockingly. “I could’ve sworn you said that you liked to treat women with _respect_.” Annabeth put an emphasis on the letter ‘t’ and Percy couldn’t help but smile, finding that her mocking tone was ridiculously adorable.

Percy pouted, knowing he was now cornered by the two; then, the two of them promptly returned back to their conversation of Sally thanking Annabeth for all she has done for Percy. Percy leaned against the counter and pushed himself over it, his mom making no complaint as he did. He turned to the sweets that were in the display case and pulled out a blue macaron and took a bite of it, letting the taste linger on his lips and knowing fully well after eating a few of these his lips would turn blue because of the food.

After a few more minutes of the two of them exchanging their gratitude Sally stated that she had to use the women’s room and exited to the bathroom to the left. She glanced at Percy and smiled at him, tossing him a quick wink, like she approved of whatever move Percy was going to plan fo pull off next.

Percy felt himself blush. He just _had_ to tell his mom he thought Annabeth was pretty.

It happened that day when Mr. Brunner said Annabeth had to give Percy tutoring lessons. It was bullshit, Percy knew he needed those lessons but he really didn’t want them. He was a member of The Olympians for fucksake, he couldn’t spend time with some girl. No matter… how attractive he’d always found her…

“What’s on your mind?” Annabeth asked as she leaned against the counter looking at Percy. She still had her book bag over her shoulder and her gray looked up at him curiously.

Percy looked at her, admiring the way that whatever gods were looking out for them had structured Annabeth Chase, because truly that beauty could not have been human. The way her hair falls over her shoulder and how her body always seemed to be moving like it couldn’t stand the thought of sitting still. The way curves of her body always seemed to entrance-

Annabeth waved a hand in front of Percy’s face. “ _Hello?_ ” she asked.

Percy blinked and felt his face turn hot, realizing he had been checking out Annabeth Chase. Again.

“I- Uh- Uhm,” Percy stuttered out anxiously. “Sorry…”

The hint of a smile ghosted on Annabeth’s lips in mild amusement. “It’s fine. What are you thinking about?”

Percy shrugged off his leather jacket silently and tossed it on a chair that was sitting behind the counter. “I’m hungry,” Percy said with a short laugh and looked at Annabeth. “We did say we would celebrate. So what are ya in the mood for? My ma has jelly beans and I think she has bags of cotton candy… and more recently she’s been selling like cookies and stuff.”

Annabeth’s eyes wandered to the display case where the candy and sweets were. Percy had given her some of his mom’s cookies before. He usually took her sweets during their study sessions. He expected her to ask about the cookies but instead her gaze landed on Percy again and she smiled a little more again. Annabeth asked, “What were you eating earlier?”

Percy blinked. “When?”

Annabeth smiled. “When i was talking to your mom,” she laughed. “Your lips are blue.”

“Oh.” Percy opened up the display case and pulled out a tray of multi-colored macarons. “These,” Percy explained quietly, hoping his mom wouldn’t hear, “are macarons. My mom is still trying to figure out how to make them so the food coloring sorta gets on ya lips.”

“Huh.” Annabeth nodded her head and picked up a red macaron and rolled it between her thumb and forefinger for a moment before taking a bite out of it. Percy put the tray back in the display case. “These… are pretty good.”

Percy couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh? Kissin’ ass, huh?”

A snort erupted from Annabeth and she covered her mouth, her face turning red. “I am not!” she hissed at him. Annabeth rolled her eyes and continued to eat the macaron. “You’re just mean.”

Percy laughed and jumped over the counter again, Annabeth sliding to her left as he did so and the son of Poseidon landed beside her. “I don’t think I am. I’m just observing your behavior.”

Annabeth popped the rest of the macaron in her mouth and rolled her eyes as she chewed, her cheeks full. She looked cute. Percy smiled and leaned over pressing a kiss to the girl’s cheek, unable to help himself any longer. This holding back had been going on for too long.

Annabeth blushed brightly as she swallowed down the rest of her macaron and she looked over at Percy questioningly. “What was _that_ for?” Annabeth asked with a small shy smile, the second time that day of hearing that same question.

“That,” Percy said as his mother walked back into the shop, “was just because you’re beautiful.”


	11. Best Friend Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Don’t panic! It’s just Halley here and I just wanted to apologize for not updating. I went through a really rough writer’s block patch but I thin I managed to push passed it and I’m ready to start updating again. The story gets me super excited to think about and I hope you guys are going to like the rest of the content I post up! Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Saturday at noon time was the prime time for Half-Blood Diner. Teenagers flooded the damned place like monsters and there was not nearly a single adult in sight. Teenagers danced on the dance floor as the jukebox played  _ Heartbreak Hotel _ by Elvis Presley. Someone had to have done the duty after all, the song was taking the nation over by storm and at least once every fifteen minutes or so that song would continue to pop up on the jukebox, causing all the teenage girls in the diner to all at once squeal in delight at the voice of the famous “King”.

Annabeth Chase was a fan of Elvis Presley, a major fan, but most of the time Annabeth had to control the fangirl within her around her friends and parents. None of them needed to hear how much of a dork Annabeth was whenever she heard Elvis and his smooth baritone voice. 

Percy had found out during one of their study sessions when the radio had started playing  _ Money Honey _ , and Annabeth suddenly got a little too excited then when she did with the other songs.

_ “Awe, geez,” Percy said, throwing his pencil down dramatically. _

_ Annabeth’s smile that had previously been on her lips was now gone. They were alone together in Mr. Brunner’s room, the radio on Mr. Brunner’s desk playing music very quietly. “What?” Annabeth asked, confused as she looked at Percy.  _

_ Percy grinned at Annabeth. “You’re an Elvis fan aren’t ya?” _

_ Annabeth blushed brightly and didn’t answer, which left her open to Percy’s taunting. Annabeth ended up blushing for the entirety of the tutoring session, the blonde girl unable to concentrate on the work before her. When the two of them left after the hour and a half they had to be working together Percy caught her hand just before they left the school entrance and turned the girl around to face him.  _

_ Annabeth had managed to calm her embarrassment down by a tenfold at that point. _

_ “I didn’t mean ta embarrass ya,” Percy said. _

_ Annabeth sighed and pulled her arm back from him as she looked up at him, his sea green eyes looking down at her with a genuine apologetic nature in them. “It’s really no big deal,” she said with a light smile. “I mean… it’s true.” Annabet shrugged. “Hard to deny my love for a musical genius like Elvis.” _

_ Percy smiled and reached over brushing a strand of stray hair from her face and behind her ear. “I think it’s cute.” _

“Earth to Annabeth.” 

Annabeth flinched, bringing herself back to reality. Piper’s hand was waving in front of her face, trying to catch the blonde girl’s attention again. Annabeth blinked er gray eyes a few times and looked at Piper, pushing the girl’s hand away with a small smile. “Okay, okay,” Annabeth said with a laugh. “You got my attention.”

Piper tilted her head in confusion. “You’ve been out of it all day,” she said with a pout. “You seem really distracted.” There was a moment of silence fo her, like she was trying to figure it out then it seemed to dawn on her. “Is Percy causin’ you trouble?” she asked, lowering her voice. 

Annabeth’s eyes widened. “N-No!’ Annabeth managed to stutter out. “Of course he isn’t!” The blonde girl laughed, a little anxiously. “Trust me, he’s the last thing on my mind.”

Piper nodded her head and seemed to not believe Annabeth for a moment. Her eyes seemed to search her best friend’s. Annabeth smiled over at Piper reassuringly before looking over at Reyna who had laid her head atop of the chrome table. The blonde girl blinked mildly surprised by Reyna’s mood.

Reyna was usually in a tough mood but for some reason when she saw Reyna, she had a feeling things were rough with her. Annabeth stretched out her hand to her friend and patted her head. “You okay, Reyna?” Annabeth asked gently. 

Calypso was usually the one who comforted Reyna. They were each other’s best friends like Annabeth and Piper were. In the end though, they were all friends and had each other’s backs. So, Annabeth felt protective of Reyna even though she didn’t really know her like Calypso.

Reyna shrugged and picked her head up quietly as she rubbed her eyes. “Yeah,” she said after a moment and smiled at her friend. “Just tired.”

Piper pouted. “You always look so stressed,” she said putting her elbow on the table, placing her chin in the palm of her hand. “Both of you. It’s senior year, you guys. Loosen’ up a bit.” 

Reyna and Annabeth looked at each other. Piper was always the one that tried to get Reyna and Annabeth to try and forget about school. The two girls never really minded, but even the two of them knew that they couldn’t be bothered to forget about school right now. With final exams coming up, they had to be studying at all hours if they still want to be going to the big name colleges they wanted to be going to. Either way, the stress Annabeth was feeling wasn’t about school.

Annabeth had a feeling that Reyna’s stress wasn’t about school either. She would ask her about it later, though.

Piper brightened up suddenly, dropping her arm off of the table. “Oh! What if we go see a movie at the drive-in? We haven’t gone in so long!”

“Oh,” Reyna said making a face. “I don’t know, Pipes. I need to keep studying. I’m retaking the SAT next Saturday one last time before the school year ends. I can’t distract myself.” Reyna shrugged. “I bet if ya ask Cal she would want to go.”

Even though Calypso was part of their group, Annabeth and Piper weren’t really close with her. She was a foreign exchange student and neither Annabeth or Piper were really sure how to act around her still. She wasn’t clueless, she was just… different. Not to mention she wasn’t really around them half the time. So, Annabeth and Piper had no reason to be close to her. Calypso was a lot more social than the three of them and had plenty of friends. The only reason she ever came back to the group was to be with Reyna.

Piper’s mood dropped and she pouted a bit at Reyna’s rejection to hanging out together but she looked at Annabeth with a hopeful look. “Annie?” she asked with a big smile. “Do you wanna hang out? We’ll do it next weekend. It can be like a best friend date, what doya say?”

Even though Annabeth had been hanging out with Percy Jackson a lot more often, she did miss her best friend. Sure, Annabeth couldn’t really tell Piper about the fact she was crushing on her ex-boyfriend’s best friend. Who was also an Olympian member. That was too much drama that Annabeth didn’t want to deal with. If Piper was leaving for the next four years for college, she didn’t need to know.

Not  _ yet _ anyway.

“Sure,” Annabeth responded after a moment with a smile, earning an excited cheer from Piper. “That sounds fun.”


	12. A Deal's a Deal

The scent of chocolate chip cookies was distracting Percy. He couldn’t concentrate on the homework that Annabeth was trying to get him to do but he kept eyeing the plate that sat on the blonde’s side. She was working on her homework and Percy thought if maybe she was distracted enough he could grab one. He couldn’t wait until after he finished his work like Annabeth told him he had to do.

It was the next Saturday and Percy had some how managed to convince Annabeth to come over to Percy’s house and study for final exams before she had to go to the movies later with Piper McLean.

“Percy,” Annabeth said, flickering up her eyes to the boy sitting across from her. The two of them were sitting in Percy’s room. The door was wide open as it was inappropriate if it were closed. Percy mom was the one who made him keep it open though, not that Percy was planning to do anything if the door was closed. “Finish your work, then you can get a cookie.”

Percy pouted. “But I’m hungry.”

“And what makes you think I’m not?” Annabeth asked, looking at him deadpanned. “C’mon Perce. If we both finish our work than we can eat the cookies.” The blonde girl pushed the plate further away from Percy, putting it behind her back so, Percy wouldn’t be tempted to grab one. “Get to work.”

The problem was though, Percy really wanted that cookie and at this point he was willing to do _anything_ to get it. Percy put his notebook down, pouting still hoping that he looked cute enough to earn himself a cookie from his _kind of_ girlfriend. It didn’t work.

“Annabeth, please!” Percy pleaded as he laid back on the carpeted floor in agony. “I’m so hungry, I think I’m gon’ die.”

“You aren’t going to die.”

Percy held up a finger to Annabeth who was just staring at him amusingly. At this point Percy knew that if he tried doing his homework he could probably get the cookies a lot faster. A part of him liked pushing Annabeth’s buttons though, she was fun to pick on and not to mention her reactions were always worth it.

“Oh contraire!” Percy said. “What if I, hypothetically, was dying and needed a cookie to live. Ya would then have no choice but to give me a cookie so I could live.” Percy flickered his sea green gaze over to Annabeth’s stormy gray ones and grinned but Annabeth just shook her head, grinning a bit.

“You’re funny, Jackson.” Annabeth said with a shake of her head. She smiled a bit though and Percy adored her smile.

Percy gaped at her, in mocking apal. “Yer saying ya _wouldn’t_ give me the cookie?”

Annabeth considered it. “No,” she said with a laugh. “You’re also not dying. So, do your work.”

“I’m wounded, Chase.”

Percy, with no other choice but to listen to her, groaned and picked his notebook back up and got back to work dejectedly. Truth be told, Percy didn’t really mind working on his homework now. As long as Annabeth was there to help him he had no reason to deny the fact he wanted to do it now. Plus, now that Percy was actually paying attention in class he actually found the homework pretty easy. Especially math.

The two of them got their homework done, Annabeth finishing up first and they put their supplies away and started eating the chocolate chip cookies. They were warm and the chocolate still melted in their mouths. Sally Jackson had the best tasting sweets in all of Manhattan and Percy refused to believe otherwise. It brought a smile on his lips.

He glanced over at Annabeth who had closed her eyes as she chewed the cookie. She sat in front of the window in Percy’s room and the sunlight was hitting her almost too perfectly. Her golden blonde curls shining in the sunlight and Percy felt his heartache for just a moment. He hated that he had to keep their (kind of) “relationship” a secret. He wanted to show the world that he had managed to get the most beautiful girl in the world.

Annabeth opened her eyes and smiled at Percy.

They were both quiet for a moment longer then she asked, “So, what’s your deal?” Annabeth stuffed the rest of the cookie in her mouth.

Percy raised his eyebrows at her in question. “My deal?”

Annabeth nodded her head. “Yeah.” Annabeth swallowed her cookie. “Like what’s the story. How’d you end up working for The Olympians?” It was a valid question for Annabeth to ask. She had been around him this long at this point and he knew the question was going to come up at some point. And it wasn’t a bad answer, so Percy didn’t mind answering. He trusted Annabeth.

“Ma dad came up to me when I was younger and asked me to join actually,” Percy said, lowering his voice hoping that his mom wouldn’t hear him. “He knew me and my ma were having some trouble financially and he said if I joined The Olympians we could consider it like a job. So, he would pay me and my ma and…” Percy almost let it slip. It was the one part of the story he couldn’t tell Annabeth. It was the one part of the story he couldn’t ever tell anyone because if he did…

“And what?” Annabeth asked tilting her head.

“It’s nothing,” Percy said immediately. “I kind of owe The Olympians ma life in a way.”

“You owe them your life?” Annabeth asked softly, seeming reluctant about saying those words. Even coming from her they sounded strange. She furrowed her eyebrows together silently, seeming a bit confused. “Did you make a deal with them? That’s why you’re in the gang?”

Percy bit his lip and he just shrugged his shoulders as he picked up another cookie from the plate. He glanced behind him at the open door and he slowly stood up. He could hear voices travelling up the stairs of his mom and stepfather. Percy liked his new stepdad, he was the only person that Percy thought he could maybe trust with his life. He’d never had a father figure before, Poseidon didn’t really count even though he was in Percy’s life again.

Percy shut the door.

“Yeah,” Percy said just holding the cookie in his hand. “It was… a really bad deal.”

It was dangerous deal that Percy knew was confidential. His mom had asked him over the years again and again but Percy couldn’t bring himself to admit it. He would go to hell for it for sure. He was only twelve though, how would he have known that his father would have actually gone ahead and done the deed?

“Percy…” Annabeth’s voice was gentle and she quietly stood up from the floor. The black poodle skirt that she was wearing that day had wrinkled because she had been sitting on the ground. She walked over to him quietly and Percy exhaled as Annabeth wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. “You can tell me,” she mumbled.

Percy wasn’t sure he could though. “You’ll hate me,” he whispered. His voice was strained and his heart was racing in his chest and it was only one emotion he could identify. Percy had only ever felt that emotion a few times in his life. Fear. “I don’t want you to hate me.”

“I could never hate you, Percy.” Annabeth’s embrace around him tightened and Percy felt his breath stop short because… she was hugging him. She was hugging him like she cared about him. Sally hugged Percy but this was different. This was a hug from Annabeth chase. Someone who saw the dirty work he was capable of doing but still agreed to be his friend, still agreed to be around him, still agreed to flirt with him.

She was someone who still agreed to _hug_ him.

Annabeth meant more to him in that moment, she was the only one who didn’t let those horrors define Percy. Sally Jackson was a wonderful mother and percy knew he wouldn’t have been the same person if she hadn’t been in his life. She still saw her son with a fearful eye though. He couldn’t blame her but now… Annabeth now was the only person in his life he could trust and that would not judge him for what he had done in his past. It was a mistake that still haunted him.

Annabeth said, “You can trust me.”

Percy knew he could and he wrapped his arms around Annabeth, letting the cookie fall onto the ground and break into pieces.

The truth of why he still worked with The Olympians was too gruesome for him to admit aloud. If people already despised Percy for just being a member, if they found out _why_ he became a member in the first place he knew that he was going to be crucified on the spot. Percy could remember vividly as he woke up the morning that it happened, the way that his father had walked into his room and woke his son up.

_Percy flinched in his bed, his sea green eyes opening up in surprise. He met the same colored gaze that could only be his father’s. Slowly, the twelve year old boy sat up in his bed and looked at his father in confusion. The apartment smelled of beer and tobacco, a scent that Percy had already grown used to. He had bruises lined up along his arms and one black eye. From the way Poseidon was looking at him, examining the harm that had bestowed on his son, there was a big chance that those wounds weren’t going to be healing any time soon._

_“Dad?”_ _Percy asked groggily. He rubbed his eyes, trying to rub away the sleep from them and he yawned. “What are you doing here? You know how ma is about you being around me-”_

_Poseidon didn’t look concerned about the consequences that Sally Jackson had if he caught him inside the house. “I know,” Poseidon said. He had something thrown over his arm, a jacket of sorts. “I just wanted to come in and tell you that we did what you asked us to do.”_

_Percy stared at him, confused and still unaware of what was going on around him. It took him a couple of moments to realize what his father was talking about. His eyes widened, partially in fear of what they had done. “You-” Percy stumbled on his words. “What do you mean you did it?” he asked. “What exactly did you do?”_

_"That's for me to know," Poseidon tossed the jacket onto Percy’s bed and he instantly could feel the leather weigh down on his legs and his eyes widened when he recognized the logo on the back of the jacket as the head of Medusa, the gorgon woman who was cursed that if anyone ever looked her way they would turn to stone, "and for you to never find out."_

_“A deal’s a deal, Percy,” Poseidon continued, no hint of a smile. He just regarded him coldly. Percy didn’t mean anything to him, he was just a deal that he had to meet the end of the bargain for. Nobody was a human being in The Olympians. You were just a slave sent out to do jobs that you were told to do. Percy was only twelve when he joined The Olympians, and now he owed them his life for the job he had asked them to do. It saved his mom and let her find new opportunities but Percy was stuck at his father’s side, forced into a life he never planned to have. “Welcome to The Olympians.”_


	13. Simple and Planned

Annabeth never once let go of Percy when he told her of what his past was like. The way he was abused by his older stepfather. How sometimes he would also end up hurting his mother as well. Annabeth could feel his pain also and she listened as he told her about how his father, his  _ real _ one came back into his life when he was twelve years old and offered him a deal to take his stepfather off of his hands and to get him to stop hurting Percy and his mother. 

If he did it though, he would forever be in The Olympians debt.

Percy was twelve though, how could he have possibly known that the plan was to kill Gabe and… do the worst things possible to his body. All the money that The Olympians received from the job went to Percy but he said he never once used that money, knowing that the guilt was only going to eat him alive if he did.

Percy was silent when he finished talking and he blinked a few times. Annabeth was holding his hands tightly in hers and she squeezed them reassuringly. She didn’t hate him, it was a child’s mistake. Not to mention… Gabe Ugliano was a  _ terrible _ person. It was unforgivable the things he did to Percy and Sally Jackson. While what The Olympians did was absolutely ruthless, he got what he deserved. 

“You’re brave,” Annabeth said at last. “You’re the bravest damn person I know.”

Percy looked at Annabeth and his eyes were misty as he looked at the blonde girl. Annabeth didn’t curse often but when she did, Percy knew that her words now had so much more meaning. Cursing was sort of someone’s way of adding in emotion into words when they can’t seem to do it on their own. Annabeth didn’t know how to rely on emotion and this was the only form she could show that she  _ did _ care about Percy so much more than he thought she did.

“You aren’t a bad person for asking him to go away. I don’t think you are and your mother shouldn’t either. You didn’t know what you were getting yourself into, you didn’t know the stakes that were at hand.” Annabeth paused and let Percy’s hands go as she reached up and cupped his face in her hands. “You are a good person, Percy Jackson.”

“You really believe that?” Percy whispered. “After everything I’ve done? After the mess I still have to do for The Olympians, ya still trust me?”

Annabeth was quiet a moment and she dropped her hands, Percy catching her wrists as she did so. “I don’t have anybody else, Percy.” Annabeth’s voice was quiet as she looked up at him. “You are the only person I’m willing to trust at this point. You’re the only one who hasn’t left me… My parents don’t care about me. They couldn’t care that I’m here right now. If Piper found out, she would drop me. You… You’re all I have left Percy Jackson and I never want to lose you.”

He wasn’t wearing his jacket that day. He just wore a solid white shirt that his darker skin was peeking through. Although Annabeth had never admitted it before, she liked when Percy wasn’t wearing his Olympian jacket, it made him look like… well, a normal teenager. Annabeth sometimes wished he was. She liked Percy now, if he wanted to stay with The Olympians she still wouldn’t care but she knew he deserved happiness. Happiness wasn’t with The Olympians.

“You won’t,” Percy confirmed. “As long as I’m alive, I’m never going to leave your side, Annabeth Chase.” 

Annabeth felt her heart racing in her chest as Percy leaned down to kiss her when the bedroom door suddenly flew open. Percy and Annabeth jumped apart, faces beet red as they looked over at Sally Jackson who stood at the doorway with an apron over her clothes, one hand placed on her hip as she looked at her son accusingly. 

“Perseus Jackson,” Sally said with a motherly berating tone. Annabeth covered her mouth with her hand to keep herself from laughing and also to cover up the major blush she had. “Did you close the door when I specifically asked you to  _ not _ do that?”

Percy looked at Annabeth for help, like he actually expected her to defend him. Which, she did end up doing because if it weren’t for Sally barging in on the two of them, Annabeth would have actually gotten to  _ kiss _ the infamous Percy Jackson. The idea got her head spinning and her heart racing. What would have happened if Sally had not opened that door?

“It was my fault, Mrs. Jackson,” Annabeth said putting her hand down, managing to get her blush down to a minimal pink. “I closed the door because I thought it would be a little more quiet for Percy since he has a bit of trouble concentrating when there’s noise around him. Sort of like how I am.” It was such a feeble excuse that Annabeth thought Sally wasn’t going to believe her for a second but the woman’s stern look instantly washed away hearing Annabeth’s words and she smiled at her warmly.

“Oh,” she said softly with a gentle nod of her head. “I see.”

Annabeth glanced back over at Percy and he had his hands buried into the pockets of his jeans as he looked at his mom. “Yeah,” he said in solid agreement. “Sorry if it seemed otherwise, Ma.”

Sally’s eyes widened and the tips of her ears turned red with embarrassment. “Oh! No, no. I didn’t think otherwise, Percy! I just… get paranoid.” She let out a nervous laugh. Annabeth smiled lightly at her and felt her cheeks turn pink. Even if the two of them ended up doing more than just  _ kissing _ , which Annabeth doubted would have  _ ever _ happened, she had her bets placed that Percy probably had some condoms ready. If he had been hanging around Annabeth and been paying attention to how she acted he would be prepared.

“It’s no big deal, Mrs. Jackson,” Annabeth said reassuringly towards the older woman. “Sorry if we worried you.”

Sally waved her hand vaguely and she looked at the ground and saw the cookie Percy had dropped then noticed that none of their school supplies were no longer out, clearly put away for the day. “Did you both already finish your work?” she asked looking between the two friends.

Annabeth wasn’t used to the attention, it was a foreign thing to her. At home, Annabeth’s stepmother was usually too drunk out of her mind to even pay Annabeth any attention and her father was almost never home and never answered the phone when she called him. The fact that Sally Jackson, a woman she hadn’t even met a month ago, was giving her more attention then her own mother did was  _ strange _ .

“Yeah,” Percy responded. He grinned a bit as he glanced over at Annabeth. “Wise Girl here convinced me that if I finished my homework she would let me eat the cookies. She even checked my work and said I’ll probably get an A.”

Annabeth smiled as she looked over at Percy. “That was all you, Jackson.” She looked back at Sally who was watching the two of them. “The cookies were really good Mrs. Jackson. Thank you again.”

Sally took a moment to respond but Annabeth watched as a bright smile began to form on her lips and she clapped her hands together. “Of course, dear!” she said enthusiastically. “You’re so nice to have around, Annabeth. Why don’t you stay around for dinner? It’s getting pretty late and you shouldn’t be eating too late.”

Annabeth’s eyes widened. “Oh…” she smiled lightly and glanced at Percy like she wanted his help in getting out of this but he started smiling to like that was the best idea that anyone had ever thought of. “I don’t know. My stepmom doesn’t really like when I get home late-”

“I’m sure she won’t mind.” Sally said sweetly. “I’ll get you some leftovers to take home before you leave so she’ll understand. Consider it a thank you for everything you’ve done for Percy. Right, dear?” she looked at her son quietly and Percy nodded once with a big smile. 

“That sounds about right.” He looked down at Annabeth and chuckled seeing her expression and how surprised she looked by all the attention she had surfaced from this invitation to have dinner at the Jackson household. “What do you say, Wise Girl?” Annabeth didn’t mind… but boy was it gonna be  _ weird _ if Percy’s stepfather was there. He was a teacher at their high school and since Annabeth’s mother was the principal at the school… well she hoped he wouldn’t be too nervous around her.

She would have to make it clear she talks to her mother about once a month.

Annabeth sighed in defeat. “Sure,” she said with a light shrug. “Sounds fun.”

* * *

“So,” Paul Blofis said sitting at the table, smiling at Annabeth, “Annabeth, where are you planning to go to college?” He poked his fork through the casserole that Sally had decided to make for dinner. “I’m assuming you’re going to college, right?”

Annabeth nodded her head as she swallowed the food that was in her mouth and she smiled at Paul as sweetly as she could muster. “Yes,” she said. “I actually got accepted into NYU and I’m going to be studying through their architecture program.” Usually when Annabeth said that she felt excited, now the blonde girl wasn’t so sure if she was as excited. She glanced over at Percy who seemed to be more invested in his food than in the conversation.

Sally brightened up hearing that. “I heard you did!” she said enthusiastically. “That’s fascinating. Have you always been interested by that career path?”

Annabeth pushed the food around her plate, lost in thought for a moment. “Yes. I liked looking at those buildings and wanting to one day build something and my name to be associated with it.” She smiled lightly. This was strange, Annabeth knew it. She was having dinner with Percy’s parents, that was usually something that you did when you were in a relationship with someone. 

_ Was Annabeth in a relationship with Percy Jackson? _

They would have talked about it if they were… 

“Ya guys should see her art,” Percy said as he swallowed up the food that he was chewing. “It’s amazing. She has so many plans she wants to set in stone.” His eyes were bright as he said that and Annabeth could feel her ears turn red in embarrassment. She had  _ never _ brought up her artwork around him or shown him for that matter. She drew around him but never brought attention to it and he never seemed to acknowledge it. “Ya should show them, Annabeth,” Percy said looking at her happily. “Especially Paul, he could probably help you get some connections.”

Paul gave his stepson a look but he was smiling real big. “That was my line to say, Perce.” He turned to Annabeth as he put his utensils down quietly, the metal clattering against the glass plate. “Percy’s been talking a lot about you these past few weeks since you’ve been tutoring him,” Paul said with a smile, glancing at his step son once again.

Percy’s cheeks dusted with pink. 

Paul continued, “Which I thank you for. I wanted to return the favor, though. Sally’s way of saying thank you if to let you have a lifetime supply of candy from  _ Sweet on America _ . I personally want to thank you in my own way.”

Annabeth blinked a few times, trying to process his words. A lifetime supply of sweets from Sally’s shop, eh? Maybe there were more perks to being Percy Jackson’s smart friend who was a girl. “And in what way would you be thanking me, Mr. Blofis?” Annabeth asked, referring to him by his instructor title she knew him as.

“Call me Paul,” he said as he reached over and grabbed his wife’s hand. “Percy has talked a lot about your ambition to have a career in the architecture and construction field and I personally wanted to help you out. I got into contact with some of my colleagues and pulled a few strings and if you want to, I might have gotten you an interview to become the apprentice of the famous Edward Durell Stone.”

Annabeth’s fork fell out of her hand. 

Anybody who was anyone studying architecture new that Edward Durell Stone was a rising architecture and was quite possibly the one human being who was going to redefine how modern society looked within the next few years. Annabeth’s heart was racing in her chest at the thought of even being in the same  _ room _ as him.

“Are you serious?” Annabeth asked in awe. “You- You got me an interview with  _ Edward Durell Stone _ ?”

Paul nodded his head with a big smile. “Consider it a thanks for everything you’ve done for us. We think you could be just as big as he is and create the monument of a lifetime.”

* * *

 

“I love your parents!” Annabeth declared two hours later as the two of them were making their way down the street hand in hand with each other. Annabeth was smiling brightly as they walked together, her hair bouncing with each step she took. “Your mom gave me food and your dad gave me an interview.” Annabeth looked over at Percy with a huge smile “You did  _ not _ have to talk that highly about me by the way.”

Percy was grinning, seeming to enjoy seeing her enthusiasm. “I did,” he said with a nod of his head. “How else am I gonna support ma girlfriend’s amazing dreams?”

Annabeth nudged him with her elbow. “Damn, Jackson. Girlfriend? At least take me on a date first.”

“I think we’ve been on plenty.” Percy grinned and squeezed the girl’s hand as they walked up to the porch of her house. Her dad’s car was there but it was late enough for him to be in bed already. “If you want me to ask you on one though, just say the words.”

Annabeth laughed.

Percy’s smile wavered a bit and his expression was serious for a moment. “Unless… you still aren’t ready.”

So far, that had been the only problem as to why Annabeth had refused to go on a real date with Percy. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to say yes. After tonight though, Annabeth didn’t want to take any chances in saying no. They had learned so much about each other. His parents felt more like a family to Annabeth then her parents had ever felt. And Percy…

He made Annabeth so  _ happy _ . 

“I think I’m ready,” she said with a smile. “I think… I’m ready to be your girlfriend.”

Percy smiled brightly and she could instantly tell that by those words, his whole world felt complete. Annabeth felt the same way and she was ready to just drop herself at his feet and do anything for him. 

_ Annabeth had fallen in love with him.  _

Percy smiled and he caught Annabeth’s chin with his index finger and the blonde girl felt her heart skip a beat by the contact and she blushed a scarlet red as she looked up at him, his sea green eyes looking at her with a look that spoke more words than could have ever been said possible. 

Annabeth stood on the tips of her toes to lean up and kiss him when she heard the front door open up and the couple froze, only inches away from each other. Quickly, Annabeth stepped back from Percy and she looked over and felt her face turn white seeing a fuming Piper McLean. 

Annabeth forgot the movie plan with Piper.


	14. Mattachine Society of New York

Percy didn’t stick around after he dropped Annabeth off at home. He made his way back to his house silently, his hands now stuffed into the pocket of his jeans. He continually kept glancing behind his back like he was expecting Piper to appear out of nowhere and kill him. She looked like she was about to back at Annabeth’s house.

The only thing that had came out of the confrontation was that Annabeth hadn’t seemed to be afraid of showing that she seemed attracted to Percy. She kissed him on the cheek earning a frustrated shriek from Piper who screamed something incoherent at the two of them before Annabeth dragged her into her house. Percy decided to leave, deciding that that feud was none of his business.

He would ask Annabeth about it tomorrow. Hopefully by then the two of them would have understood. He didn’t want to see Annabeth hurt over this little fight, it would kill Percy because… it would be  _ his _ fault.

When he arrived at his apartment and went up to his room he noticed that there was a shadow of a person standing outside his window on the fire escape. The eighteen year old reluctantly reached over under his mattress and grabbed his pocket knife and unsheathed it and walked over quietly. His footsteps were silent and he threw open his curtain and yelped in surprise when he saw instead of it being some burglar, it was only Nico di Angelo, bearing his gang leather jacket that still looked a little big for him despite the fact that he was wearing the smallest size that The Olympians had to offer to him. 

Percy blinked and shook his head in confusion. “Nico?” he blurt out putting his knife down. “What the hell are ya doing here?”

Nico blinked hard. He was wearing his jacket and was standing there looking down at someone who was sitting at the edge of the fire escape. It was a boy about the same age as Nico with blonde hair. He was wearing bright colored clothes and looked back at Percy with a shock stricken face. 

“Hey, Percy,” Will Solace said softly.

Will Solace was someone that Percy was friends with through Nico di Angelo. Percy wasn’t really sure how the two of them became friends but he knew that they were very close with each other and always seemed to always have plans together after Nico’s plans with The Olympians. 

“Hey…” Percy responded with a heavy sigh. “So… not ta be rude, but why exactly are ya guys just standing outside ma window?” he asked raising his eyebrows at his friends. “I thought you guys were going to Coney Island for the weekend with Frank, Leo, Jason and Thalia.”

Will and Nico glanced at each other reluctantly, seeming to share some sort of secret that Percy wasn’t let in on. He knew that the two of them were close, so Percy wasn’t too upset that he didn’t know what was happening in Nico’s life. He still needed to know though because they wouldn’t be here if something serious had occurred. 

“Guys…”

Nico sighed and he ran a hand through his long black hair. “Perce… I think I messed up.” 

“ _ Think _ ?” Will Solace asked with a scowl as he looked back at Nico. “If they find us they’re gonna kill us, Nico.”

“Woah,” Percy’s eyes widened in surprise. “What are ya guys talking about? What do you mean? What happened?”

Nico covered his face in his hands, looking very distressed at the moment and he sighed shakily. “Oh gawd. I fucked up,” the boy mumbled, sounding like he was going to start crying. Will Solace was quick to stand up though, instantly making his way over to Nico di Angelo and removing the boys hands away from his face and whispering comforting words to him. 

Percy tilted his head and he quietly tossed the knife on his bed and climbed out the window and onto the fire escape with them. He examined both of them over and his eyes froze when he saw that there was a gun sitting on the right side of Nico’s jacket pocket. “Holy shit,” he breathed. “Neek, where tha hell didya grab one of those?”

Nico looked away from Will, eyes red, and looked at Percy then down at his gun and silently pulled it out. Will flinched at the sight of it but didn’t seem to be acknowledging the object in any other way. 

“Well…” Nico started and sighed, just looking down at the dangerous weapon in his hands. “Ya see, I’ve been… lying to you.” He glanced up at Percy but Percy didn’t seem to be interested in whatever lie Nico was talking about. “The reason that I don’t go to The Olympian meetings all the times is because I’m apart of this other society.”

Percy blinked. “Like… another gang?”

“No.” Nico shook his head. “I’m apart of a  _ society _ . It’s called the Mattachine Society of New York; also known as the MSNY.” He seemed to grow pale with every word he said and he slowly put the gun pack in his pocket. Will Solace was simply looking at the ground quietly, not meeting anyone’s eyes. 

Percy already felt clueless when he was around Annabeth. This somehow made him feel ten times worse. They acted like he should have known what this society was. Was Percy  _ supposed _ to know? He had certainly never heard of it before and doubted he probably was ever going to until these two showed up.

“I… I’m sorry,” Percy shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what that is.”

Nico’s eyes widened, very much surprised that Percy had no clue what that was. “You don’t?” he asked. “Octavian is always talking about it, though. He’s the person you were supposed to be keeping an eye on.”

Ah… Percy wasn’t sure how he was gonna get out of this one. It was true that Octavian was still his responsibility but because of him being around Annabeth a lot more lately, he had been paying less and less attention to the stringy haired leader of SPQR. So he probably missed a lot of information that he probably could have gained a long time ago. “Must’ve slipped,” Percy lied easily. “Refresh me?”

Nico looked like that was the last thing that he wanted to do.

Will sighed and spoke up. “It’s… a society where gay men come together and try to figure out a way to bring themselves into the light and not be oppressed against.” Percy then watched as Will reached out and took Nico’s hand in his own, interlacing their fingers together.

_ Oh. _

Percy didn’t have a problem with people who were gay. It wasn’t any of his business to get angry at and it certainly wasn't any of his business who people wanted to fall in love with. By the looks of it, every time he saw Nico with Will he seemed more happy than Percy had ever seen him. Not to mention… it was pretty obvious. Nobody hung out alone with their friends like that on a regular basis. Who was Percy to judge though?

“Alright,” Percy said with a shrug, smiling at them hopefully showing he didn’t mind them. Nico and Will were still his friends. “So, what’s the problem?”

Nico sighed when he looked over at Percy and seemed so relieved that he hadn’t seem to be pushing the topic any further regarding their sexuality and he held onto his, Percy  _ assumed _ , boyfriend’s hand tightly. “Well,” Nico said, “Octavian has known for a long time that Will and I were members there and he’s been sorta trying to make fun of us and torture the hell out of us for being like that.”

Percy scowled.  _ Fucking Octavian _ . “Uh huh.”

Will nodded in agreement. “He’s been given’ us death threats and tellin’ is that we’re gonna rot in hell. That sort of stuff. Keeping t on the down low, though. So, not everyone knows we’re gay. Just him and his goddamn gang.”

“Right.” Percy rolled his hand vaguely. “What does this have to do with the gun?” Percy finally asked. “I’m assumin’ the gun is in the story ya both are describing?”

Nico nodded vigorously. “Yeah.” He glanced at Will. “So, the Mattachine Society is pretty secluded. We don’t share the information of where the meetings take place unless you have connections to the leaders in some way. I’m not sure how… Octavian found out where the meeting was takin’ place this time around and he found out the one we were gon’ be in for.”

Will continued, “He ran in and started shootin’ the place with the rest of the SPQR.”

Percy’s blood ran cold.  _ He missed this information?  _

Nico reassured him, “We’re both fine. But… As ya know, The Olympian’s want us all to be armed no matter what since we’re the heirs.” Nico hesitated. “Well… Octavian pointed his gun at Will. He was gonna shoot him and I knew that if Octavian shot that he was gonna die so… I pulled out my gun and shot him first. I’m not sure what happened to him because the two of us made a run for it.”

Percy’s eyes widened. “ _ You shot Octavian? _ ”

“They had already killed some members in the Mattachine!” Nico argued. “Either way as soon as I shot him, I’m pretty sure they fled the scene.”

“Nico!” Percy hissed, narrowing his eyes dangerously at him. Octavian was dead, that was fine to him. Who was he to stop that hatred that happened, it might as well have after all. Karma is a bitch. “That isn’t a good thing! If Octavian is dead that means-”

“Your quest is over,” Nico concluded. “Why is this such a big deal for you?”

“Fuckin’ outstanding, di Angelo,” Percy said in a condescending tone. “Ma quest is over but what about the goddamn war that the SPQR is gonna put on us for killin’ off Octavian Ashford? He was their leader, none of them are gonna stand for it when they found out that the one who killed him was a member of The Olympians.”

“But he isn’t their leader though,” Will sounded confused as he said those words. He glanced over at his boyfriend in question. “Are you positive that he was supposed to be in charge of assassinating that creep?”

“No wonder you never spoke up at The Olympian meetings,” Nico said crossing his arms. “You haven’t been takin’ this job seriously. I thought you were just holdin’ back the information from Zeus.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Percy asked loudly, getting very frustrated. His ears ringing and his head spinning. “Octavian  _ is _ the leader of SPQR. That’s what Zeus told us. This is the information that the informants have led us to believe.”

That’s what Percy had thought for years anyway. Octavian was always around and always the person that was causing mayhem for the SPQR. If Octavian wasn’t the leader, who was the person that was causing mayhem all over New York? Who was the true mastermind behind the shooting at the MSNY meeting? Who was the person that Octavian was looking up to enough that he was willing to kill and torture so many people for.

Nico sighed. “Well,” Nico sat on the stairwell of the fire escape, Will sitting right beside him and still holding his hand, “this might come as a shock to you. This isn’t a gang. At least not anymore.”    


Percy had known this information for a while but he had never really found himself wanting to express it. Zeus’s power was spreading all over New York and he was gaining a lot of powerful politicians and, if Percy’s assumption was right, he would be running for the mayor very soon. The Olympians was no longer a gang that ran New York City.

It was a  _ mob _ .

While a mob was an organization that formulated crime, The Olympians were laundering money to pay their members for the different dealings that the leaders were asking them to do. Because of the amount of money The Olympians had gained over the years, the members usually are held at a prestigious reputation because they get paid a significant amount for their dealings. 

And SPQR was following in their footsteps. 

“I know that,” Percy said with a sigh. He didn’t want to hear information that he was already aware of. “But what messed up person is running the SPQR and trying to overtake Zeus and The Olympians? It’s a nearly impossible task, they can’t reach our standards at this point. The Olympians reached where they were because of decades of hard work.”

Will sighed. “That’s the worst part. It’s the person we were all least expecting to be the mastermind behind this. Well,” he glanced at Nico, “ _ masterminds _ . There are two leaders.”

“ _ Two? _ ” Percy was absorbing too much information today. “Who?”

Nico sighed and glanced out into the city where you could see all the lights and hear music being played out in the streets. It was a common thing to happen at night, after all this was the city that never sleeps. “It’s Reyna who founded the organization,” Nico said softly. “And Piper is the one advocating everything in revenge for what Jason has done.”


	15. All Too Well

Annabeth had heard Piper yell plenty of times in the past. She remembered the Monday after her and Jason broke up she had been crying when her ex ran over to talk to her and Piper screamed at the top of her lungs or him to get away from her. That he was a psychopath and a murderer. It was so terrifying to everybody that after that scene nobody ever tried to piss of Piper McLean ever again and stayed as far away from her as they possibly could.

So, you could imagine how terrified Annabeth was as Piper was screaming at her.

“You know what?” Piper was shaking, her entire body filled with rage towards her best friend. “I can  _understand_  if you wanted to raincheck the movies. It happens, Annie! The fact that you  _ditched_  me and you instead went on some  _cheap ass date_  with  _Percy Jackson_  is the worst thing you could have ever done to me!”

If looks could kill Annabeth was sure she would have been on the floor at this point crying in pain but instead she just stood there as emotionless as a statue, waiting for Piper to let out all of her rage. She could hearing clattering in the kitchen and knew that her father was home and cleaning up from dinner. He wasn’t interrupting their conversation and for once in Annabeth’s life, her stepmother wasn’t screaming at the girl’s to keep it down.

It’s like they  _purposefully_  wanted to hear this conversation and watch her be uncomfortable.

“How long have you been seeing him?” Piper asked, lowering her voice, her teeth gritted together. “How long have you been lying about going to do a “study session” with him? I bet you two run off together and fuck each other in the library! I bet you think that’s  _so_  romantic, huh?”

“Pipes,” Annabeth interrupted finally, not wanting to hear another word of what Piper thought was going on between Annabeth and Percy, because  _nothing_ had ever been going on, “they’ve always been study sessions. I wouldn’t lie to you about that much.” Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.

“Really?” Piper had her hands on her hips. “I think you’ve been lying for a long time now. Whenever you’ve been smiling to yourself and being silly and singing and saying you’ve been just having a good day, that was all because you had been hanging around that Olympian freak wasn’t it?”

“ _Why do you care?_ ” Annabeth screamed her eyes widening. “When have you suddenly cared what I’ve been doing. You are my  _best friend_  not my mom! You always say you will support whatever decision I do and right now all you are doing is attacking me!” Annabeth blinked a couple of times and she shook her head looking away from the girl. “You say my parents are terrible but right now you are no better than them. You have to trust me, Pipes. I’m not an idiot and I promise you whatever assumptions you’ve made about The Olympians in the past are dead wrong.”

Piper gasped. “Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly gone all soft for those asses. Annabeth they kill people, do you think I’m lyin’ about what I saw Jason do?”

“No.” Annabeth glared at Piper. “I think you just don’t know the whole story.”

Annabeth may not have known Jason Grace all that well, but if Percy was friends with him she had a feeling he probably wasn’t as bad as he seems. Percy didn’t trust people easily but his friends were the people that Annabeth could tell that he trusted the most. Piper just didn’t know the whole story of what Jason was doing and she was just assuming the worst and if Annabeth had learned anything during her time she had been busy falling in love with Percy Jackson was that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Or in this case, by their jacket.

Piper opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something more but Annabeth shook her head at Piper and held up a hand to silence her, earning a surprised look from the girl. “Don’t talk,” she said instantly with a shake of her head. “I don’t want to hear anymore. If you can’t trust me with this decision just… get out.”

Piper’s face went deathly pale. “W-What?” her voice got soft.

“Get out of my house,” Annabeth ordered sternly, praying to whatever higher being was out there that her voice didn’t waver. This hurt her a lot more than she would have ever wanted to admit. “I’m not going to be standing around here and taking shit anymore from you, Pipes. For weeks I had to listen to you talking shit about Percy but I’m not doing that anymore. I love him and you’re just going to have to deal with that.”

Piper blinked and she looked like she wanted to say something but another woman’s voice broke through the air. “You heard her.” Beatrice Chase stood there with a firm look on her face and for once Annabeth noticed that she wasn’t drunk out of her mind. “Get out.”

Piper looked over at Annabeth’s step mother and her breath caught and she just looked down. It took a couple of seconds before she looked up at Annabeth and her voice was soft as she spoke, a dangerous note ringing out of it. “You’re going to regret this decision,” Piper said. “You don’t know it now, but I promise you. Percy Jackson and The Olympians are gonna be gone and you will have nothing to live for when that day comes.”

Piper then proceeded to turn on her heel and walk out of the Chase door.

Annabeth found herself staring at the door as it slammed shut and she could feel a hand clamped over her shoulder. Slowly, the girl inclined her head and looked over at her step mother. She didn’t have on any worry and instead looked only a bit amused by what had just happened in their living room. Annabeth wasn’t sure that even she could explain what had just happened. That was just…  _too_  much.

“Your father and I have a lot of questions, you know,” Beatrice said with a light smile.

Annabeth sighed. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t.” Annabeth sighed and she quietly started making her way over to the kitchen silently, ready to receive whatever punishment she was going to get for staying out as late as she was. “I have a lot of questions too.”

As Annabeth walked into the kitchen the sight of her father made her freeze in her steps. She didn’t see him often but when she did she always felt a bit of relief flood over her. Her father was the one person she could still talk to and not feel judgement from. Even if the time frame she could talk to him was only five minutes, it was enough for Annabeth to feel safe.

“Hey daddy,” Annabeth greeted as she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind. She listened ashe shut off the sink and dried up his hands. She let him go as the older man turned himself around and pulled his daughter into a hug.

“Hey princess,” Fred Chase greeted kissing the top of her head. “Sorry I didn’t call that I was going to be home, it was going to be a surprise but by the time I had came home, Beatrice told me you had left for the night.” He pulled away from Annabeth and looked down at her in question and Annabeth knew the question was coming up already, she knew she wasn’t going to be able to keep the story a secret for long. “Then Piper came around about an hour ago saying that you both were supposed to meet up for a movie but you never showed.”

“I got a little distracted,” Annabeth said with a shrug. “I’ve been tutoring this kid lately and his mom insisted that I stayed over for dinner. I guess it just… slipped my mind.”

“You don’t seem to look like you regret it, Fredrick Chase commented.

Annabeth shook her head. “It happened. Piper was being mean. She had no right to say half the stuff that she did about the kid I’ve been tutoring. She was angry because I’ve been hanging around him more lately and he’s best friends with her ex boyfriend.”

“The kid who was in that weird mob-gang?” Beatrice had spoken up and when Annabeth looked over at her she saw she was leaning against the counter. Her red hair falling over her shoulders as she tried to make herself part of the conversation. Annabeth was too mentally worn out to try and disclude her.

“Yeah,” Annabeth shrugged. “But they aren’t all bad. Piper just accidentally saw the bad side of what The Olympians were. I’ve been hanging around Percy and he’s been telling me all about The Olympians and how sometimes they’re really helpful to New York and stuff. They really aren’t as bad as everyone thinks that they are.” Annabeth never thought she would live to see the day where she would be defending The Olympians and all that they stood for. It was a weird thing for Annabeth to be saying but she knew it was true. While The Olympians once in a while did things that were absolutely ruthless, some of the members truly were some of the best people in the entire city and had the biggest hearts.

Percy Jackson was a prime example.

“The Olympians?” her father asked. He scowled and looked over at Beatrice. “Did you know she was hanging around them?”

Beatrice shrugged and Annabeth rolled her eyes. “I had no idea.”

Frederick sighed softly and looked down at Annabeth with a gentle look. “Princess,” he said softly, he seemed a bit concerned and nothing like the anger that she was expecting him to, “I don’t think you should be hanging around them… The Olympians can be… dangerous.”

Annabeth knew that The Olympians were notorious and anybody who was anybody in New York knew about them and their status. Still, considering how her father was never home and always in Virginia and how her mother always seemed to be blacked out and drunk, it still came as a surprise to her that either of them knew about the gang.

“I know,” Annabeth said, like it was supposed to support her case. “But I’m not… you know, like a member or anything. I’m just friends with someone that is. He isn’t really all that bad.”

“And how do you know that?” Beatrice asked. She didn’t sound upset, she just seemed… worried.

“ _Because I know him_ ,” Annabeth snapped. “Now, stop asking so many questions. It isn’t really any of your business. I was just letting you know what Piper and I were arguing about and why she was so… like  _that_.” Annabeth’s tone got bitter at the memory of her and Piper’s argument. Piper was her  _best friend_  that was no reason she needed to act in such a  _rash_ way. She should’ve been supportive or asked Annabeth why… Instead she  _lashed_ out.

“We’re just worried about you, Annabeth,” Fredrick Chase said putting a hand on her shoulder. “The Olympians are bad news. Only the worst kind of people are associated with them. Including… well, your mother.”

Annabeth blinked.  _Her mother?_ Why would her mother, the  _principal_  of Goode High School, be a member of The Olympians?

Then… it had Annabeth thinking. It was no wonder that Percy and his gang never got detention. It was no wonder that Percy seemed surprised that he was getting in trouble with Mr. Brunner because Athena Chase had never allowed him to get in trouble because of his status. Mr. Brunner must’ve gotten him in trouble on his own accord.

“Annabeth?”

Annabeth blinked again, snapping out of her trance. “I, um,” Annabeth stuttered, “I’m gonna go lie down. I had a long day.”


	16. Make It Out Alive

Percy allowed for Nico and Will to sleep at his place for the night. He set up a bad for the two boys to sleep in for the night and Percy laid on his bed silently, unable to sleep as he listened to the two boys breathe softly in each other’s embrace. When Percy looked over at the two of them he found his heart hurt at the thought of Annabeth laying in bed with him and holding her the way that Will Solace held Nico di Angelo like he was willing to do anything to protect him from harm.

Just like how Percy would do the same thing for Annabeth.

Percy got little to no sleep that night and got out of bed as soon as the clock struck 8:00 A.M. Usually, Percy wouldn’t be keen on waking up this early on Saturday but this was a rare case. Considering everything that had happened, they didn’t have much time for this to get done.

Percy shook awake Nico first, hissing for him to wake up. The boy groggily opened his eyes and looked up at Percy with squinted dark brown eyes. The dark circles under his eyes were a lot lighter than usual and Percy wondered if it was because he actually slept or because he was sleeping with Will. Or maybe both.

“What?” he mumbled sleepily as he moved away Will’s arm from around him as he sat up. He looked over at the clock that sat on Percy’s bedside drawer and scowled. “Jackson… its eight. What the hell?”

Percy rubbed his eyes, wanting to get himself awake for the day. “We gotta go see ma pops,” he mumbled tiredly. “I’m gonna see if he can get everyone fo’ an emergency meetin’.” Percy sighed and walked over to his closet and pulled out the first shirt and jeans he saw. He was still wearing the same clothes from the previous day and really wanted to change out of his clothes at this point.

“What for?” Nico asked as he stood up, grabbing his jacket that he had laid on a chair that was in Percy’s room. “You know they don’ like havin’ meetin’s on weekend. It messes with their family time.”

Percy gave Nico a dark look. “Well, they don’ have much a choice. We gotta handle the SPQR problem before it gets out of hand.”

Nico paled a bit and nodded his head seeming a bit guilty. Percy felt a bit bad about his harsh words but knew it was true. He was frustrated… Octavian was  _dead_. Truth be told about what Percy wanted to do, he didn’t really  _want_  to kill Octavian. The plan was that he was going to try and convince Octavian to disband the mob and leave New York. Now that Percy knew that Piper and Reyna were actually the ones behind all of this though… that sort of messes up everything he wanted to do.

“Alright…” Nico mumbled. He glanced back at Will and his face softened. “Should we take Will with us…?” he asked looking over at Percy seeming reluctant. He seemed to understand that Percy was tense and not in the best mood. Percy couldn’t let his mom find out that he had let two of his friends sleep over. Especially one who was an heir to The Olympians.

“Yeah,” Percy said with a nod of his head. “Go ahead an’ wake him up. I’m gonna change.”

Percy walked out of the room silently, putting his head down as he entered the bathroom and tossed his clothes on the vanity looking a little worse for wear. He could see the dark circles that were ringed up under his own eyes and the eighteen year old sighed softly, running a hand through his already messy hair. Without giving himself another glance, Percy began to get himself dressed. He didn’t bother to fix his hair as he walked back into his bedroom seeing Nico and Will talking to each other as they were tying up their shoes seeming ready to go. They had already folded the blankets and stacked them neatly on his bed.

“Mornin’,” Will said with a light smile, trying to seem a bit more spirited then the other two. Percy would understand why considering their situation, he still wasn’t the biggest fan of it though. “So, we’re gonna go talk to The Olympians?”

Percy nodded his head. “That’s the plan.” Percy walked out of the room silently, putting his head down as he entered the bathroom that was across the hall from his bedroom. He tossed his clothes onto the vanity as he shut the door closed behind him as he looked up at his own reflection and noticed that he was a little worse for wear. The dark circles that were under his eyes were a little more noticeable in the lighting he was in. Percy sighed softly and pushed a hand through his already messy hair.

Without giving himself another glance, Percy began to get himself dressed. He didn’t bother to fix his hair as he finished up and walked out of the room and into his bedroom, noticing that Nico was folding up the blankets that the two of them had been sleeping on all while Will was tying his shoes and speaking to his boyfriend in a hushed tone.

Percy paused and looked over at Nico. “Ah… you don’t have to do that, bruh,” Percy said as he walked over to Nico with a light smile. “I could have done that.”

Nico shook his head with a light smile. “It’s all good, Perce. It’s the least I could do after everything.” His smile disappeared after a moment and he glanced over at the blonde boy anxiously before looking back at Percy. “I… wanted to apologize for… fuckin’ everything up.” Nico looked down at the floor and Percy could see how anxious the fifteen year old was looking.

Percy sighed. “Nick,” he put a hand on Nico’s shoulder, “I’m not mad at you.” He tapped his fingers against his opposite hand, losing himself in thought. “I’m… mad at SPQR. You were just trying to protect Octavian. I can’t get mad at you for just wanting to keep him safe. If I were in your position I would’ve done the same thing, no hesitation.”

Nico let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you understand… When we see your dad, you can lie and say you already had that information. I’d rather you no get in too much trouble for this.” Nico gave Percy a light smile. “Either way, even if you say that it isn’t my fault it still is… now The Olympians are in trouble because of me.” He watched as Will placed a hand on Nico’s shoulder like he needed comfort.

That was when Percy realized just how bad all of this was going to go down. This messy business was far from over.

* * *

It was hot that May morning. Despite the fact that Manhattan was a pretty northern state in the United States, it was still prone to be hot and humid because of the ocean that was beside the island. Percy was used to the weather at this point, though. The leather jacket he wore over his clothes indicating his standing in New York as a member of The Olympians ringing loud and clearly as he walked down the street with Nico and Will.

The three boys received looks, especially people who seemed to notice Will was with Nico and Percy and was not wearing a jacket. That meant he wasn’t a member and the only thought that crossed their minds was that Percy and Nico had taken Will with them for a death sentence or something - it didn’t look like anyone was in the mood to stop them if that was the case.

Percy arrived at a rich community and Percy waltzed through it silently, hands in his pockets noticing there was a couple of people who were out that early Sunday morning making their way out into town for church or just out enjoying their meal with their family on the front porch. They all seemed to tense up as Percy passed by their houses.

He arrived at a large white house that, now after being in a relationship with Annabeth, he could admire. It had wonderful Greek architecture with statues out in front of the house of the sea god in Greek mythology that his father had gained the name from, Poseidon. Percy  _hated_  the statues. It was men completely naked and pissing into a fountain, he was in no condition to bash on his father for his absurd likings in Greek style considering Percy had no interest in  _any_  style.

Percy walked up the steps, glancing behind him as he saw Nico and Will looking up at the house in awe.

He’d been asked by Jason before on multiple occasions why he didn’t live with his father instead. Jason had been living with his own father across the street ever since he had joined The Olympians. Percy had a simple and direct answer for that: he didn’t want a real relationship with Poseidon. Poseidon may have been his biological father but he hadn’t even bothered coming into his life when he wanted to leave a legacy.

He was not even close to a father figure.

Percy rang the doorbell and the noise echoed loudly and even reached outside.

“Ain’t he gon’ be pissed we’re at his doorstep at eight in the mornin’,” Nico asked seeming a bit more anxious now, he kept messing with his hair.

Percy shrugged. “Probably.”

The door opened after a few seconds and Poseidon revealed himself in all of his glory, wearing a blue bathrobe with a mug of coffee in his hand with messy hair. He seemed confused seeing Percy and a scowl formed between his brows noticing Nico and Will standing behind his son.

“Wha’ the hell is goin’ on?” he grumbled.

“Emergency meetin’, ol’ man,” Percy said, pushing past the Long Island chapter leader. “We gotta discuss something over. It’s about that damned SPQR. We’re in trouble.”


	17. How You Disappeared

Annabeth Chase didn’t really have too much to look forward to in her day to day life. On most days she was found sitting at the library, bored out of her mind and trying to study for things that she already knew. Piper McLean would usually sit with her though and make the day worth her while and Annabeth could always consider it their safe space. On this particular day, Monday, it was worse. This time because she sat  _alone_.

After their fight on Saturday night, Piper hadn’t tried to to call Annabeth on the landline like she usually did and hadn’t came to Sunday brunch… like she  _always_  did. It was clear that she was ignoring Annabeth and this fight was going to be the one that truly ended whatever friendship they had managed to maintain in the past few years.

Under Piper’s mindset, she would say that Annabeth was choosing a boy over her best friend that wasn’t the case in Annabeth’s head though. She hadn’t chosen a  _boy_  over her best friend, she had stayed in the middle and people made  _assumptions_  about her. People meaning Piper McLean.

Annabeth felt a pair of warm lips make contact with her cheek and she whipped her head around, raising her arms ready to go into a fighting stance but relaxed when she recognized it was just Percy… with his friends. Annabeth smiled lightly at her, now, boyfriend and slowly dropped her hands to her lap.

“Hey,” she said with a sigh. “What… are you doing here?” Annabeth asked reluctantly as Percy sat beside her and he gestured for the guys to sit around as well. Jason Grace, Piper’s ex boyfriend, sat on Annabeth’s left. Leo Valdez sat across from Annabeth as well as Nico di Angelo and Frank Zhang. Annabeth looked severely out of place surrounded by all of The Olympians members.

Nico di Angelo ended up being the one who spoke up, surprisingly. “Jason,” Nico nodded to the blonde boy beside Annabeth, “noticed that Piper was outside with Reyna and Calypso. We figured something was up so Percy took us here to find you.”

“And we found you,” Jason concluded. “Did something happen?”

Annabeth blinked, surprised. Annabeth had never really talked to The Olympians members before but Percy had told her plenty of information about them for her to know the basic facts about each of the members. Annabeth was surprised that Jason had noticed that Annabeth was excluded from the group and that any of them had cared about her at all. She looked over at Percy who had put his arm around the back of the girl’s chair and smiled a bit at him before turning her attention to the group. “Piper and I got in a fight,” Annabeth admitted slowly.

“Kill ‘er,” Leo Valdez said immediately, pounding a fist into the palm of his hand. “With fire.”

“No,” Frank said quickly. “Kill her with anything  _but_  fire.”

“Such a buzzkill,” Leo mumbled.

“What was the fight about?” Jason asked, bringing the fight back to a logical standing point. He was clearly the logical member in the group, the dad figure one might call him. “If you don’ min’ me askin’?”

“Ya don’ have to answer,” Percy said giving Annabeth’s shoulder a light squeeze. “I know it was rough.”

Even though Piper hadn’t called Annabeth on the landline, Percy had. He did so a bit later in the afternoon asking if everything between her and Piper was okay to which she responded with a simple no. Annabeth wasn’t going to lie and say that things went smoothly when they didn’t, but she also knew that Percy was going to take it pretty hard because he was going to feel like it was his fault.

Which it  _wasn’t_.

“It’s fine,” Annabeth insisted with a light smile looking over at Percy. Quietly, Annabeth returned her attention to Jason and the others and sighed softly. “Piper found out about me hanging around Percy and… got angry. So, she’s refusin’ to talk to me.”

“Kill her,” Leo said again, repeating his actions with his hands from before with a big grin. “With fire.”

Annabeth couldn’t help but laugh a bit at Leo’s words. “I’m not gonna kill her,” she mumbled with a shake of her head. “She’s my best friend… It just hurt that she didn’t even consider taking my feelings into consideration and just focused on how she felt.” Annabeth  _hated_  that she was admitting this outloud, it felt like she was spilling out something that no one else needed to hear but Annabeth also knew she was holding in her emotions too much. It wasn’t good for her. Annabeth was going to snap if she continued going at it like this.

Piper was her best friend… there was no denial in that, but Piper was being selfish in this situation. A best friend would try to understand the situation and not jump to the worst thoughts possible. Piper…

Piper McLean had lost Annabeth’s trust.

“Okay,” Leo said with a nod of his head. “Then  _I_  will kill her for you.”

Jason sighed in exasperation. “Leo-”

Leo held up a hand, interrupting Jason mid sentence and cutting him off, clearly having something more important to say than Jason’s petty little argument over why Leo can’t kill a human being with fire. “Here me out,” Leo said simply. “Piper does a lot of shitty things, we should be able to kill her with fire because it’s the right thing to do. I thought we all agreed to protect Annabeth no matter what?”

Annabeth’s grip on her pencil tightened a bit at those words. “You guys… are gonna do that? Why?”

Percy smiled. “Because I love ya, Wise Girl. Anymore stupid questions?”

* * *

Annabeth couldn’t focus during calculus class. She kept tapping her foot against the floor as Mr. Brunner went over the homework that he was going to assign the class for the day. Despite the fact that graduation was looming over the seniors, that didn’t stop the math instructors from giving the students an overwhelming amount of homework. Annabeth didn’t mind, knowing fully well that she would end up just having to spend more time with Percy.

_“After class,” Percy said to the blonde girl as Piper McLean walked in, “I need to talk to you about something.” His sea green eyes flicked over to Piper almost anxiously. “It’s important.”_

The bell for the end of the school day rang and all the students got up in relief and quickly went out the door as Mr. Brunner called out to them to do their homework. Annabeth got up and watched as Piper purposefully ignored her and stalked out of the classroom to go with Reyna and Calypso. A part of Annabeth wanted to go and talk to Piper but knew that the girl wasn’t going to listen to one word that she said.

“You ready?” Percy asked smiling at her, his bag thrown over his shoulder.

Annabeth nodded her head smiling up at him and quietly pushed herself up out of her desk and packed up her notebook and textbook in her bag and stood up taking his hand in hers as the two of them made their way to the library to get their homework done before they went out to Half-Blood Diner. Annabeth found herself thinking of the morning, when Percy had said that he loved her.

Annabeth had naturally returned the words once the two of them were alone.

The only thing was they still hadn’t shared their first kiss. That usually came first right? Usually. Because it was Percy and Annabeth though, that meant that everytime they were close to sharing a kiss they had to be interrupted by other people before either of them could share that moment.

The two of them made their way towards the back of the library. Percy tossed his bag on top of the table and sat himself down quietly and Annabeth sat herself across the table from him. The two were silent as they got out the assignments that they had to work on that day. Annabeth was quiet as she asked, “So, what did you want to talk about?”

Percy glanced up at Annabeth and he looked around a moment like he was double checking that nobody was around to hear them. “It’s related to my mission,” Percy told her pulling out a pencil and tapping it against his chin. “With SPQR.”

Annabeth nodded her head. “And I’m guessing you aren’t supposed to be telling me?”

“Kind of.” Percy sighed softly giving her a gentle look. “It’s more like I think you should know what’s going on. A lot happened this weekend and a lot was… discovered.”

“Discovered?” Annabeth blinked and sighed as she looked down at her homework and started working on the calculus homework for Mr. Brunner. Annabeth liked finishing up more difficult assignments first then doing the easier ones. “What doya mean?”

Percy’s hand covered Annabeth’s and slowly, the blonde girl looked up at her boyfriend with a hint of confusion on her face. She could see the concern that was etched on Percy’s face and Annabeth realized he had a lot more on his plate then she was realizing. Annabeth’s train of thought went back to Mr. Brunner’s class and she found herself able to recall the fact that Octavian wasn’t in class today. Usually, Annabeth wouldn’t have cared but now that she knew that Percy was sort of responsible over anything happening to Octavian and the fact that the stringy blonde brat never missed a day of school… that meant whatever news Percy was bringing to Annabeth was regarding him.

Percy had done the job.

Annabet recoiled her hand back anxiously. “Did you…?” The question died on Annabeth’s lips, unsure if she would be able to say them aloud. How could she? Of course she loved Percy, there was no denying it but the idea that Octavian had died on his hands was…

“No,” Percy said almost immediately and took his girlfriends hands in his again. “I didn’t hurt him I promise. It… It was an accident that happened actually that happened while we were having dinner with my parents the other night.” His grip on Annabeth’s hands tightened and she could see in his sea green eyes that he genuinely meant it.

“I’m sorry…” Annabeth whispered releasing a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. “I… I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to think you had done it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Percy said offering Annabeth a reassuring smile. “I… It’s a long story what happened. He deserved the end he got though, as cruel as it sounds.” Annabeth knew that Percy didn’t say those words lightly, Percy Jackson was not a cruel person and had the biggest heart that Annabeth Chase had ever seen. She also knew though, that Percy had the darkest heart that she had ever seen.

“We have time,” Annabeth said with a nod of her head. “What happened then?”

Percy then proceeded to explain that when he had arrived home he had been greeted to the sight of Nico di Angelo and Will Solace who had been shaken up by returning from a scene of a crime where they had been attending a meeting that had been ambushed by the SPQR team. They had reported to Percy that multiple people had been killed including Octavian Ashford which had been by the hands of Nico di Angelo in defense of Will, his boyfriend. While sharing this information with Percy, Percy had apparently discovered that Octavian, who had previously thought was the leader of SPQR, was in fact not the leader of the rival gang. It was instead two other people who Percy had paying the least attention to.

Annabeth was still reeling over the fact that it was Nico who had ended up killing Octavian Ashford but he was apparently the least of his worries. “Okay…” Annabeth said, allowing for her brain to catch up. “So, who is the leader of SPQR?”

Percy looked around for a moment, another time and she could see the paranoia that he had and Annabeth squeezed his hands gently with a soft smile. “It’s okay,” she whispered leaning close to him. “It’s gonna be okay, Percy.”

“You don’t know what I’m up against, Wise Girl,” Percy mumbled as he slowly brought his gaze over to Annabeth. “You don’t understand who I’m up against.”

“Whoever it is, Percy, I’m going to help you get through it. You wanna know why? Because I love you and I would do absolutely anything for you Percy Jackson. Remember how you said you would be the one to steal ma heart? Well, you did, and you still do. Every goddamn day.”

Percy was quiet for a few moments as he stared down at their hands and he seemed to be lost in his own head. His eyes contained a calculating look in them that Annabeth couldn’t identify then slowly he looked up at Annabeth and it looked like he had aged five years in just those few seconds that he had looked away from her.

“Even if I told you it was Piper?”


	18. Satisfied

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A random four month hiatus? I am... honestly, really sorry. I sort of had just lost inspiration and completely forgotten this story. I always felt a little discouraged with this story because I feel like no one really cares about it. Then the other day, I was deleting documents on my computer and I found this story and the outline and I just feel compelled to finish it. I promise I am going to finish this story no matter the cost. Even if I feel discouraged by life. I was so excited to write this story and now I just have to keep that excitement going. I know this story line goes beyond what normal PJO fanfictions do but I don't like being like those other fanfictions. I either go all out for a story or I produce nothing at all. I really hope you guys will enjoy the rest of the story with me if you DO keep reading. I promise, this story only gets a lot more interesting from here on out.
> 
> So, enough talking. Sorry I bored you all with my life story, haha. Enjoy this little (it is a short chapter ever, I am so sorry) filler chapter with some quality percabeth moments!!! xoxo

Annabeth stared at Percy wide eyed and she felt her breath stop short all of a sudden. Those were  _ not  _ the words that she had been expecting to hear from him. Annabeth felt her stomach drop. She had known Piper for  _ years _ . The two of them have been best friends forever and she was a good person, one of the sweetest people that Annabeth knew, there was no way that she would be the one who was running the SPQR mob… 

There was absolutely  _ no way _ .

“W-What?” Annabeth stuttered out her eyes wide. “What do you mean it’s Piper?”

Percy winced a bit seeing Annabeth pale very suddenly at those words and he reached over and took her small hand in his and squeezed it gently. “I know… and it doesn’ get much better. Apparently, she isn’ the only one that is working alone. Reyna is working side by side with her. Reyna runs the entire thing with Piper working as her right hand man - or woman I guess. Nico told me and… they aren’t exactly going to let go of what we’ve done. With Jason and Piper’s breakup, ta me and you datin, and… well… Neek is saying that Piper may have finally just snapped.”

Annabeth covered her face in her one free hand, still holding Percy’s hand in her left one. “How could it get worse?” Annabeth mumbled. “Is there  _ any _ good news?”

“Depends how you take it,” Percy offered. Annabeth picked up her head and nodded her head at him for him to tell her and she could see Percy smile very lightly. “Well… Calypso had been dating Leo the whole time. So, you aren’t the only one Piper is mad at,” Percy offered to Annabeth. When she gave him a tired look, he simply nodded his head. It wasn’t the worst news Annabeth had heard, she has definitely heard worse. For instance Piper and Reyna running a  _ mafia _ organization. Nothing was going to top that. “Alright, well I can see that that news don’ bother ya.”

“Either way,” Annabeth muttered putting her head on the table defeatedly. “It was really obvious that Calypso was around Leo all the time. She never wanted to hang out with Piper, Reyna and I and it always happened to be on days you guys didn’t have meetings. It was  _ very _ obvious.”

Percy laughed. “You’re pretty smart, Chase.”

“Thank you,” Annabeth muttered sarcastically and closed her eyes. Annabeth couldn’t seem to wrap her head around any of this. Piper McLean, the person she trusted the most, her best  _ friend _ , was the one behind all of this? How was that even possible? Annabeth was  _ always  _ around Piper. Annabeth would have noticed some strange behavior coming from her, there was always shady business happening when you are working with a mob. Annabeth sighed shakily, her hands clenched into fists. Annabeth  _ always  _ noticed these things. This  _ shouldn’t  _ have slipped past her. “This doesn’t make any sense,” she whispered softly. “I  _ know _ Piper. She can’t be the person.”

Percy winced softly letting go of his girlfriend’s hand and gently placed his hand on the blonde girl’s back. “Is it that you don’t  _ think  _ that Piper is the person or that you don’  _ want _ her to be the person?” 

Annabeth sighed again and she rested her head on Percy’s shoulder quietly. “I… I don’t know,” Annabeth answered honestly, just  _ tired _ . “I’m just tired of all this mess. A lot is happening at once. Octavian is dead… Piper and Reyna who were ma  _ best _ friends are leaders of a mob… and I just found out my mom is in The Olympians-”

“ _ Woah _ ,” Percy looked at her with wide eyes. “Wait, how did you find out? Your mom didn’t want you to find out. I was gon’ to tell you but she said that she didn’ want you to get involved in this mess.” Percy was looking at her sympathetically and it was clear that he did care about her and didn’t want her to be a part of all of this mess. 

“Well,” Annabeth said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Too late for that. I’m officially part of all of this mess. Might as well get me caught up with everything.” Annabeth sighed. “My dad told me that she was in The Olympians, he was trying to get me to not be around you but I mean, it doesn’t really matter. He’s too late to try and stop me from doing all of this now.” Slowly, Annabeth lifted her head and rubbed her eyes. “But don’t catch me up with everything today,” she added hastily. “I think I need a milkshake right now after all of these secrets being revealed.”

Percy pouted. “I thought we were going to study?”

Annabeth sighed and she couldn’t help herself but laugh. She loved his pout too much for her to say no to him. Annabeth nodded her head. “Okay, we’ll get our homework done then get going,” Annabeth said as she pulled out her notebook and textbook. 

Annabeth would have to process all of this information later on. If tried to do it now she would just end up getting a migraine. This was something that Annabeth needed to piece together alone and on her own time. The signs were clearly all there, Piper hadn’t trusted Annabeth… and because of that maybe they really weren’t the best friends she thought that they were.

* * *

Percy Jackson got distracted  _ very _ easily. The young couple didn’t get to finish their homework until almost an hour and a half later because all Percy kept doing was continually flirt with Annabeth. Annabeth tried her best to ignore his attempts and finish her own homework but the looks he kept giving her and Annabeth ended up flirting back with him a couple of times. By the time the two of them emerged from the school, the sun was already setting and the two of them decided that it would be too late to head over to the diner.

Percy didn’t have an Olympian meeting to head to so he decided that he would walk Annabeth home. A banner caught his attention as they walked down the steps of the school and he grinned big, pointing up at it. It was a self made banner by the student government, most likely, that read:

**PROM**

**MAY 26**

**COME DANCE AND MAKE MEMORIES**

“Prom,” Percy stated, like it wasn’t already obvious what the poster said. “How about that?”  He looked down at Annabeth. He was looking at her almost expectantly and Annabeth realized that  _ Percy Jackson _ was  _ asking  _ her to  _ prom _ . It wasn’t like Annabeth was even thinking of going to prom, she had never considered the fact that she could one day go. Much less with Percy Jackson. It was just not something that Annabeth had really… cared for. It was such an over the top event. Granting a king and queen of a dance was so… pretentious and a waste of breath. It didn’t bother her that Percy was just asking her like it was no big deal. He was Percy Jackson after all. What more could she expect?

“It’s this Saturday,” Annabeth said looking back up at the banner. “I don’t have a dress.”

“Start looking then,” Percy said with a big grin and pulled Annabeth off and towards her house. “‘Cause we’re going and I ain’ changin’ ma mind.”

Prom with Percy Jackson… Annabeth smiled. This would be a night she would never forget for sure.


	19. Damn You’re Fine

Annabeth had never gone dress shopping before. Considering she only had four days until prom, she was now on a time crunch. Annabeth wasn’t even sure how prom _worked_. Were you supposed to match with your date? Or were you supposed to outshine your date? Not that it was possible to outshine Percy Jackson. He would take everyone’s breath away. The idea of him wearing a suit was enough to get Annabeth nervous and feeling a bit hot.

As much as Annabeth didn’t want to admit it, she didn’t want to look like an idiot on prom night. She didn’t want to outshine Percy but she wanted to be able to walk down the stairs when he picked her up and for him to look at her with awe. The way that the men did in the movies. Annabeth _loved_ romantic movies. She _loved_ hearing the cheesy music and the way that they pulled off the grand and romantic gestures. That was something Annabeth adored deep down. Annabeth knew that she would never get that completely, that’s clearly not what life had planned for her but the idea was still there. Prom was her one way ticket for her to get this moment.

When Annabeth had told her parents about how she was going to prom with Percy, her dad didn’t look too thrilled that she was still continuing to go against his will to not hang around Percy anymore. Annabeth’s stepmother on the other hand got ecstatic at the idea that Annabeth was _finally_ doing something that would be in her favor. Annabeth was clearly not her favorite person in the world but Annabeth was the only other girl she could depend on to continue to live on her legacy. Her stepmother happily obliged to going dress shopping with Annabeth since Annabeth no longer had any real friends to be around her anymore and help her make these very important decisions.

Annabeth and her mother had been searching nearly the entirety of Thursday afternoon for the perfect dress. They had already gone through nearly seven stores Annabeth was beginning to lose hope. When the two of them walked into the eighth store Annabeth was surprised to find herself running into Jason Grace. Jason was in the middle of looking at himself in a mirror, trying on a white suit.

Jason noticed Annabeth in the mirror and turned around to look at her. The store was smaller than the others that Annabeth had gone to. It had different dresses and suits on display and had one dressing room. Jason and the clerk currently working there seemed to be the only ones in the store currently.

“Annabeth?” Jason asked, surprised. “What’re you doing here?”

He looked good in the suit and it was a shame that Jason was going to be going to prom alone. If only he was still dating Piper, they would have been the best looking couple at the dance. But alas, he was not going to do that. According to Percy, he would apparently be chaperoning the new and under the radar couple Will Solace and Nico di Angelo. Annabeth didn’t think it was strange that two boys her dating. Who was she to judge? As long as they liked each other, they had the right to do whatever they wanted.

Annabeth winced a bit glancing at her stepmother but she seemed to be distracting herself by looking at the dresses that were on display. Annabeth wasn’t sure what she thought Jason was to her but she didn’t feel like having that awkward conversation. “Um,” Annabeth laughed nervously. “Don’t tell Percy, but I have to do last minute dress shopping.” Annabeth knew that if Percy knew he would feel guilty about it and she didn’t want him to feel guilty over this as stupid as it sounds.

Jason smiled lightly, like he found this amusing. “I won’t tell him,” he promised. “You haven’t found the perfect dress then?”

Annabeth shook her head. “Nope,” she admitted with a shrug. “But, I see that you found the perfect suit for you.” Annabeth found herself smiling. “It looks good on you.”

Jason beamed and looked down at himself. “Oh. Thanks. I need to look good for my solo prom picture.” He didn’t look particularly upset that he was attending prom by himself, in fact if Annabeth was right, he almost looked excited. “I even bought myself my own lapel. My sister said she would put it on me, which is weird but she also said that prom wasn’t meant for me to be alone.”

“You’re going to prom with your sister?”

“No. I said she’s putting the lapel on me. She has better things to do then dance in front of a bunch of self centered teenagers.” Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him and Jason grinned. “At least, that’s how she puts it.”

Annabeth laughed. “Your sister sounds nice.” Annabeth was about to say something else but flinched as her mother put a few dresses in her arms and she looked down to see a variety of different colors. “I don’t think anyone is going to be wearing green or orange.”

She ignored Annabeth’s comment. “Go try them on. Your friend can judge you and see which dress looks the best.” She looked over at Jason with a raised eyebrow. She was almost as intimidating as Annabeth’s mother who was the principal of Goode High School. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Jason grinned bigger. “Not one bit. Percy is my best friend, so I think I know what kind of dress will take his breath away.” Jason stepped away from the dressing rooms. “That’s what you are going for, right?”

Annabeth felt her cheeks dust with blush and she nodded softly, a bit shyly. A part of her didn’t want Jason to see her try on all of these dresses but it was too late to change his mind now. It was clear that he wanted to help her one way or another… And who was Annabeth to not get extra help. Especially Jason Grace, the “golden boy”.

Annabeth went ahead and started to try on the dresses and display them for her stepmother and Jason. Just as Annabeth had assumed, the green and orange dresses had both gotten a thumbs down. Annabeth couldn’t imagine who on earth would buy either of these dresses but she wasn’t about to judge that. She had her own problems to worry about at the moment. She was having a fashion crisis and she didn’t know how she was going to find the dress she needed. Not only did she not have the dress she still had to go shoe shopping, which she couldn’t do if she did have the _dress_.

Annabeth had tried on all the dresses and sighed when she couldn’t find the dress she wanted and froze when Jason had got up silently. She watched him walk off to where the dresses were. Annabeth and her stepmother shared a look of confusion. Annabeth figured that maybe this just wasn’t the store where she was going to find the dress. Either way, these dresses were costing way more money than Annabeth wanted her mother to spend.

“Annabeth!” Jason was smiling.

Annabeth was currently wearing a simple which frill dress with a purple ribbon around the waist. She looked over at Jason and saw him standing beside a girl with choppy black hair and striking blue eyes. She wore a leather jacket that Annabeth immediately recognized as one of The Olympian jackets, but there were other patches on the jacket. Annabeth recognized the girl immediately. She used to babysit Annabeth when she was younger and a huge smile spread over the blonde girl’s lips. She could almost remember those days like they were yesterday, she had looked up to her.

“Thalia?” Annabeth blurted out.

Thalia Grace blinked but smiled. “Annabeth,” she said smiling big. “How’ve you been?” Annabeth beamed and ran up to the girl, she must’ve been in her twenties at this point. She looked so much older now but clearly had grown more comfortable in her own skin. She wrapped her arms around Thalia in excitement in a big hug. Thalia laughed when she did that and hugged her back tightly. “Last I checked, you wanted nothin’ to do with being a girly girl. Look at ya now, buying a dress for prom. Ya really have grown up.” She ruffled Annabeth’s hair.

Annabeth beamed and pulled away from the girl and glanced at Jason who was looking at the two girls in confusion. “You know each other?” Jason asked.

Thalia looked at Jason. “Yeah. I babysat this lil punk when she was younger. I taught her everything she needs to know.” Thalia put her hands on Annabeth’s shoulders and looked at her seriously. “Jason told me that you need help findin’ a dress. Lucky you, I have gone to prom once in my life and I think my old dress will be the perfect fit for you. I was roughly your size when I was your age.”

Thalia seemed to have gained more muscle since the last Annabeth remembered of her.

“A hand me down?” Annabeth’s stepmother asked wincing a bit. It wasn’t like Annabeth’s family was overflowing with money, her parents didn’t have too much money and barely managed to get money to afford for Annabeth to get the poodle skirts she owned. Annabeth already owned enough things. The dress was a bit of a stretch if they bought it. They would be in debt.

 _Again_.

“It’s beautiful,” Thalia said reassuringly, putting her hands down. Thalia had an air of confidence around her that Annabeth wondered how she had learned to obtain. Thalia had always been confident and calm. She always got everything her way and Annabeth guessed that that was a big part of why she was so confident. This was one of those times she was going to get what she wanted. “You don’t mind if we steal your daughter for an hour or two? I promise we’ll have her home. Jason will walk her home.”

The older woman seemed reluctant but Annabeth looked at her with big eyes, pleading. Annabeth trusted what Thalia had to say and now, as stupid as it was, she trusted Jason. He was clearly trying to help her and he knew to grab a more experienced person. Jason was the kindest person in the gang - other than Frank Zhang. She had never spoken to him though. He was always doing his own thing. Annabeth had heard he had asked someone to prom, a younger girl but only as friends. It was cute.

Everyone had a date except Jason.

“Fine,” she said with a sigh. “Get her home safe please.” She smiled at Annabeth.

Annabeth sighed in relief.

“Cool,” Thalia said with a big grin. “We got her covered, Mrs. Chase. Don’tcha worry. Annabeth, get yourself out of that ugly dress and come on. We gotta get you beautiful.”

“Not that she isn’t already,” Jason said pointedly.

Annabeth laughed and rolled her eyes and she walked over to the dressing room again and got changed back into her own clothes and put the dresses away before leaving the store with Thalia and Jason to their house. Jason had bought himself the suit after changing out of it. The three friends made their way through the streets of New York to their house and at that moment… everything finally just felt _right_. Nothing was going wrong anymore and Annabeth had a feeling that Thalia’s dress was going to be the perfect dress.

Percy was going to be blown away at prom, she just _knew_ he was.


	20. You Could Set Me Free

Percy was nervous.

Prom had came a lot faster than Percy had anticipated that it would come. His stepfather had lent Percy a suit since Percy couldn’t exactly afford to get a brand new suit. Percy didn’t understand why suits were  _ so _ expensive. They were just suits. Even rentals. Why on Earth are  _ rentals _ just as expensive as buying a brand new suit?

It was almost time for Percy to head over to Annabeth’s house and pick her up and it would be his first time taking the car somewhere. Usually, Percy wasn’t allowed to take the car because his parents only had one car but today they were making the exception because it was prom. It may not be the fanciest car in the city but it was still something. Maybe if he was lucky he might have his first kiss with Annabeth in the car.

Percy always wanted to kick himself about that. The two of them  _ still _ haven’t kissed. Annabeth never seemed bothered about that fact but it bothered Percy so much because… Annabeth didn’t need to be waiting as long as she did for something that Percy should’ve done so long ago when he first started flirting with her.

“Percy! You’re going to be running late!”

Percy flinched and looked over at the door in his bedroom hearing his mother’s voice coming from down the hall. His eyes averted back to the full length mirror that he was standing front of. It was a simple tux and Percy noticed that whenever he wore dark colors his eyes shone a bit brighter. It brought out the color of his eyes and Percy figured that maybe the color of his eyes would make Annabeth not care how awkward he looked in the tuxedo he was wearing.

He didn’t know how to wear a tux. Percy for some reason felt like when you wore a tuxedo you had to pose and Percy has never really taken a picture before so he didn’t know how to pose. Which brought up the problem of how he was going to take those prom pictures at school…

Percy face palmed himself. He was going to ruin this night for Annabeth, he already knew it.

Percy walked out of his room after a couple more minutes of contemplating his fate and headed over to the living room where he found his mom and Paul standing there, his mother with a camera in hand. Percy felt his cheeks turn hot. His mom  _ knew _ he hated taking pictures and yet she still went out of her way to try and take pictures of him. And she wondered why he was never home.

Not that Percy didn’t love his mom, he loved her more than anything. Percy was just so  _ awkward _ and could never take a photo correctly and she always forced him to take picture during really random occasions. Percy’s eyes flickered over to the keys that were sitting on the hook by the door and he made a run for it and grabbed the keys and ran out the door. He felt his stepfather try to grab his arm but Percy managed to get out the door and into the car before either of them could say anything about. If they wanted a picture, Percy will gladly grab an extra picture from the prom photos that Annabeth’s parents would take and some from the  _ actual  _ dance.

Percy drove off, his parents watching him and he knew that he was not going to get away with this. 

The drive to Annabeth’s house was nerve wracking in itself. He felt his heart unable to just relax as he drove and for some reason Percy couldn’t stop thinking about how horribly wrong all of this could go. In a matter of seconds all of this could just go down the drain horribly wrong. Percy considered that maybe he could convince Annabeth that the two of them could maybe skip out on prom, but he had already made plans with the other guys to make sure that they were going to. 

This night  _ had _ to go right. Not for himself, but for Annabeth who deserved this one good thing.

When he arrived at the Chase house, Percy parked the car and got out. Percy had gone with his mother to the store earlier that day and had bought her a corsage. Percy wasn’t really sure how you put it on but he was sure that Annabeth probably knew how these things worked better than he did. He held it in his hand, along with a bouquet of flowers that he knew were really cheesy to give but he thought it was probably the way to go for today.

When Percy got to the front door, he knocked and the door was immediately opened up by none other than Annabeth’s father. Percy hadn’t really had the pleasure to meet Annabeth’s parents really and he was startled by how… almost similar Annabeth looked to him. She definitely looked like her mother, she had Athena’s stormy gray eyes and steely concentrated look but Annabeth looked a lot like her father as well. She definitely got the blonde hair genes from him and had the same smile that he had, like he was having a pleasant time but was always having to make sure to look over his shoulder to make sure nothing would ruin his fun time. 

“Percy, right?” Mr. Chase asked with a bright smile. “You look just like how Annabeth described. I’m her father, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Percy, not knowing how to be acting around adults smiled at Mr. Chase and held the corsage in one hand and the bouquet in his other hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Mr. Chase.” Percy was gestured to walk into the house and he walked in quietly and glanced around and saw Annabeth’s stepmother standing by the staircase with a camera in hand and she smiled up at Percy sweetly. 

“Oh!” she said, like she was surprised he had arrived even though there was no denying that she had heard him just outside the front door that was only about ten feet away from where she was standing. “Percy, right? You look so handsome!”

“Uh,” Percy stumbled a bit on his words. He wasn’t used to being complimented on this much and he felt his cheeks begin to redden and turn hot with embarrassment. “Thank you…” 

There was a pair of two female voices coming from upstairs that Percy was able to define as one being Annabeth’s. He recognized the other but couldn’t pinpoint who the person was. At first, Percy thought that Annabeth and Piper had finally got passed their differences, but Percy knew that Annabeth still hadn’t gotten over the fact that Piper was one of the leaders that was running SPQR; she wasn’t going to forgive Piper  _ that _ easily.

Percy heard the door upstairs open up and he felt his heartbeat pick up. He could practically feel it in his throat and when he saw Annabeth at the top of the stairs he felt all the air out of his lungs get sucked out. 

Percy wasn’t sure if he had ever really been able to describe how much he thought Annabeth was just beautiful. She looked like a  _ goddess _ . Everyday when he saw her, he wasn't sure how he had survived so long without being in her presence. He felt like every time he saw her… he felt like he was standing in front of someone who just wasn’t human. He felt like he was in the presence of beauty that he shouldn’t have been allowed to look at. Percy was below whatever beauty pedestal Annabeth Chase stood on. Annabeth was the most beautiful girl he had  _ ever _ laid his eyes on and Percy could never imagine looking at any other girl like he looked at Annabeth, he couldn’t imagine living his life without her standing at his side. Not only did she make him happy… She made him feel like he was  _ worth _ something. She treated him like an  _ equal _ . No one had ever been able to make Percy feel like Annabeth always managed to make Percy feel.

_ And he loved her so fucking much for making him feel that way. _

“Oh ma gods,” Percy breathed out softly.

Annabeth was wearing an elegant silver dress that shimmered everytime she moved. The light reflected off of the dress and it made her look like she was a star out in space. She wore heels that she seemed like she was still trying to figure out but was able to walk in them for the most part. She wore her hair down and it was curled naturally and Percy couldn’t help but thing in that moment she really  _ did _ look like a goddess. She looked…

“You look beautiful,” Percy blurted out as she arrived at the bottom of the steps. A girl walked down from behind Annabeth and grinned at Percy, and he felt his cheeks redden more. “Really, you do.”

Annabeth looked at Percy, her cheeks dusting with blush and she smiled at him sweetly. “Thank you,” she responded. She must’ve known she looked beautiful because she held herself with so much more confidence then she had ever done so in the past and it made him smile. She  _ deserved _ to be confident. This was going to be  _ her _ night.

And absolutely  _ no one _ was going to take this away from her.

* * *

After about the eleventh picture, Annabeth could see how uncomfortable Percy was becoming and egged her mother to stop and that they had to get going before they were late. Annabeth’s stepmother seemed to look a bit disappointed but she agreed nonetheless. Percy seemed relieved and promised to her parents that he would bring her home before midnight - her curfew for the weekend - and walked the blonde girl to the car. The two of them climbed in and Percy gave out a sigh of relief that he had managed to get away and Annabeth couldn’t help herself but laugh.

For as awkward as Percy was during these types of events, he was strangely very sweet and adorable. Annabeth leaned over and kissed the boy’s cheek and grinned. “You look really nice,” she said to him. “You will no doubt blow everyone away at the dance.”

“I probably won’t,” Percy said with a laugh. He blushed lightly and started the car. “Or maybe I will, but they won’t be paying attention to me. They have other people to be looking at.”

Annabeth scoffed. “Oh? Like who?”

“You, obviously.”

The entire ride over to the dance, Percy had the radio playing. Annabeth knew he had this radio station set especially for her. They were playing only Elvis Presley music and Percy knew how much she adored his music. Annabeth was trying her hardest to not sing the songs that were being played. 

After about a fifteen minute drive, the two of them had arrived at the school. Annabeth was surprised to see how many people had showed up to the dance based on how many cars were parked outside. A small fear was etched in the back of her mind that Piper had came to prom but Annabeth quickly disbanded that thought of Piper and Reyna coming. The two of them had always shown a dislike to school functions and have never shown any interest to ever attending one. Not to mention, Percy seemed very determined that Annabeth was going to have fun today no matter the cost, which Annabeth found very admirable. As much as Annabeth now feared her two ex best friends, she felt a lot safer around Percy. He had been someone that Piper had showed her to fear for so long and instead had learned to fall deeply in love with him.

Annabeth climbed out of the truck and Percy got out as well and the two of them began to walk hand in hand together into the school gymnasium where the dance was taking place. Annabeth could hear the music through the parking lot and Annabeth smiled, able to easily identify the song that was being played as “Walk the Line” by the talented Johnny Cash.

“I love this song,” Annabeth said as she started to hum along to the music softly. She was smiling at this point, unable to hide all the happiness that she was feeling in the moment. Everything was just…  _ perfect _ . Everything was going to be just  _ perfect _ tonight and Annabeth just couldn’t get over it.

Percy laughed at Annabeth’s comment as the two of them walked into the building and were greeted with a decorated gymnasium to the theme of “fairytale”. “Ya cheating on the King with Cash?” he asked grinning. He sounded amused that Annabeth also seemed to fancy Johnny Cash, realizing he just found another great way to tease his girlfriend to know end.

Annabeth gasped dramatically and shook her head with a laugh. “No!” she exclaimed immediately. She would  _ never _ disrespect her true soulmate. “My dad always puts on Johnny Cash, so naturally I also ended up liking Johnny Cash.”

“Presley would be ‘shamed at ya,” Percy teased, kissing Annabeth’s cheek. “Luckily fo’ me, I can now try ta reclaim that title of bein’ Presley’s number one fan.”

Annabeth didn’t get to argue further before the two of them were called over to take an official prom photo together. Annabeth knew Percy was  _ done _ with taking pictures, but he seemed okay during this one, Annabeth wasn’t sure why, but she was glad for it. She was going to cherish the picture forever.

After the picture, the couple walked further into the gymnasium and Annabeth could see that the dance floor was already occupied with quite a few people. Percy’s face seemed to brighten up seeing his friends in the distance and Annabeth easily recognized Jason who was dancing alone, seeming to be enjoying his time while keeping his eye on Nico di Angelo and Will Solace who seemed to be awkwardly standing at the side of the gymnasium in a deep conversation.

“Jason!” Percy greeted, walking over to his best friend and giving him a friend slap on the back. “How ya holdin’ up, bud?”

Jason smiled and glanced at Annabeth and rolled his eyes, almost as if saying,  _ Can you believe this douche? _ “I’m doin’ good, Jackson. Now stop fllirtin’ with me and pay attention to the pretty blonde on your arm.”

Percy laughed and Annabeth squeaked in surprise ( _ squeaked _ ) when she felt somebody run up from behind her and pull her arms around Annabeth. “Annie!” Annabeth was able to recognize the voice as Calypso and beamed as she turned around to face the girl and the boy who was standing not too far behind her. Annabeth waved at Leo before hugging Calypso back. Calypso had been hanging more and more around Leo, needing to get away from Piper and Reyna having heard the news. Annabeth was glad she wasn’t scared to be more open about her relationship with Leo, they were very compatible with each other and Leo seemed to understand her a little more than she understood herself.

“Cal!” Annabeth greeted back. The two hugged for a quick beat before they let each other go. Calypso’s cheeks were a warm rosy color and Annabeth had a feeling it wasn’t from the dancing. “Leo treatin’ you okay?”

“Oh, yes,” Calypso said with a vigorous nod of her head and giggled a bit, glancing at her boyfriend. She looked so in love and for a moment she wondered if that’s what Annabeth looked like when she looked over at Percy. “He is very sweet. Have you already voted? Leo says that here in America you all have king and queen of the dance?” She blinked and looked at Leo, like she needed a confirmation. “That sounds odd. Why do they want a king and queen for the dance? Do they make laws for the dance?”

“Well, America is awfully strange,  _ mi amor _ ,” Leo said with a chuckle and smiled at Annabeth, not answering Calypso’s innocently asked questions. “Hey! Thalia gave you that dress? I always knew that girl had style somewhere beneath that leather jacket of hers.”

Annabeth beamed and nodded, glancing down at the simmering dress. “Yeah. It’s gorgeous.”

The friends all exchanged a few more words before Jason had to run off to find out where Nico and Will had disappeared to and for Leo and Calypso to go do God knows what. The dance seemed to be going amazing, nearly every senior in the school had shown up and Annabeth had learned very quickly during the time that the couple was given to dance that Percy was a  _ very _ good dancer and knew the words to nearly all the songs that were being played. Including the few Elvis Presley songs. It made Annabeth fall in love with him a little more, if that was even possible.

Annabeth wasn’t that great of a dancer and Percy showed her a bit of what he knew but when the slow dance came on, Annabeth seemed to be able to understand that sequence. It wasn’t difficult for her. The two of them danced closely together and Annabeth could feel his heart beating in his chest loudly.

“Danced too hard?” Annabeth teased quietly, smiling up at the green eyed boy.

Percy chuckled and shook his head, rolling his eyes. “You can never dance too hard.”

Annabeth smiled and she gently rested her forehead against his and she closed her eyes, her heart beating just as fast in his and Annabeth wasn’t sure if she was just dreaming it but she was almost positive their hearts began to beat  _ in sync _ with the other. Annabeth had never felt her heart so full then in that moment. Everything was perfect.

_ He _ was perfect.

Percy whispered, “Annabeth?”

“Yeah?” she responded back softly as the song ended.

Annabeth opened her eyes and met his, neither of them broke away from each other and Percy was smiling broadly and he was looking at her in a way that Annabeth swore could only be described in romance books. He had never looked happier he had never looked more…  _ beautiful _ .

“I love you.”


	21. Someone Gets Hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one month hiatus, I am severely sorry on that.
> 
> Hopefully you like this chapter!
> 
> Don't hate me ;)

****Annabeth felt all the air get sucked out of her lungs. Those three words for some reason just held so much power in her mind and for as much as Annabeth thought them all the time, when Percy said them, it became a whole other ball game.

It took Annabeth a few moments to regain her composure and remember to breathe again. When she did, the blonde girl smiled up at Percy and she couldn’t hear herself as the song played but she knew that he heard her when she repeated the words back to him. She swore she had never seen Percy more happy than when he heard those words come from Annabeth. Annabeth never knew what it felt like to love someone, and she thought she was never going to find out. With Percy though, she figured it out. Being love was feeling yourself perk up when you were near the person, and when they touch you it’s like a thousand volts of electricity pump through you. A world that was colorless before suddenly is full of so much color.

And it was all because of  _him_.

Annabeth knew it was coming, and  _gods_  she had been waiting for this moment all week. Since the moment she realized that she was most likely in love with him. Percy’s calloused hand touched her cheek and she could faintly smell the ocean on him with Annabeth thought was always strange. He always smelled like the ocean even though he hardly went to Long Island Sound.

_“Why do you smell like ocean water?” Annabeth asked him once during one of their homework sessions earlier in the week. “Everytime I sit next you I get a waft of seaweed, or something.” Annabeth grinned at him._

_Percy blinked and he looked up from his math homework and over at his girlfriend in confusion. “I do?” he asked, looking absolutely baffled at the idea that he smelled like sea water. “Nobody has eva told me that. Why hasn’ anybody eva told me that?” Percy squints his eyes at Annabeth in accusation. Annabeth was still grinning. Percy laid his head over her homework. “What does ma hair smell like?” he asked._

_“Percy!” Annabeth complained and shoved his head away._

_“I smell like_ me _?” Percy asked and laughed as he lifted his head back up. “Does that smell consist of sexy?’_

_Annabeth shoved him and continued to do her homework, ignoring his continuous teasing._

Annabeth never figuring out why exactly he smelled like the ocean. She liked the mystery though, maybe one day she will find out. One day she  _would_  find out.

Percy leaned down and pushed his lips on her and Annabeth was surprised by how soft his lips were. She had never really focused on his lips too much but it was clear that he has used lip balm often like he had been preparing for this moment. That made her heart skip a beat and she kissed him right back with no hesitation. She felt as Percy’s hand came up and caressed her jaw and for a moment the world seemed to fade away from them. In that moment it was just her and Percy and nobody else was around them. The kiss was definitely worth waiting for and it made Annabeth just want to melt.

The kiss didn’t last longer than a couple of seconds before the two of them pulled themselves away from each other. Annabeth could feel her cheeks hot as Percy leaned his forehead against Annabeth’s and she felt his breath against her. She could smell the mint of it and it made her smile.

“Gawd, I am so in love with you,” he whispered softly.

Annabeth giggled -  _giggled_  - and blushed softly. “I love you too.”

It was just a few simple words. Three words really could rock someone’s world and that was the most wonderful thing about it. It was rocking Annabeth’s world in a good way and it made her feel…  _amazing_.

The song finished and when Annabeth heard it finish she pulled away from Percy and smiled at him. He smiled back at her, that stupid, cute, troublemaker smile that Annabeth had grown to love so much and it made her heart skip a beat at the sight of it.

Something seemed to catch Percy’s eye and the blonde girl looked over to where her boyfriend was looking to see him looking over at his friends who were standing against the wall together and talking, seeming to have fun with talking to each other and Annabeth smiled lightly. A part of her knew that Annabeth wasn’t holding Percy back from his friends in anyway, she let him hang out with the guys all the time but Annabeth had to admit to herself she was always by his side ever since Piper and Reyna had abandoned her just because she had grown feelings for Percy. It was unfair but then again that was life.

Annabeth smiled and squeezed Percy’s hand. “Go ahead and go with the boys,” Annabeth said. “I’m going to head to the ladies room. Powder my nose.” Annabeth didn’t have any powder.

Percy seemed to brighten up just a bit and he nods his head and turns to Annabeth. “Okay,” he said, pecking the girls lips. “Come back over when you finish. I wanna brag to the guys I got the hottest girl in school as my prom date.”

Annabeth blushed, elbowing her boyfriend lightly. “Yeah, yeah.” Annabeth smiled and she kissed him on the cheek and smiled. “I’ll be back.” Annabeth smiled and found herself walking off in the direction out of gymnasium, a small pep in her step. A couple of people had looked over at her when she walked past them because she was just  _that_  beautiful Annabeth knew it to. She felt like a princess that night, she had never really cared for prom. She wasn’t like most girls where this was the first thing on her mind but for her it was different. She’d always been forced to focus on school and she was friends with girl’s who gave as much of a damn about prom as she did. She was glad that she did give a damn in the end though.

She could see why people always said prom was a night you could never forget.

Annabeth walked into the bathroom silently, there was a couple of other girls in the bathroom and smiled at Annabeth in greeting. Annabeth greeted them back, recognizing them from her homeroom class and walked over to one of the sinks in the bathroom and looked over at herself and couldn’t help but smile a bit. Her hair was a bit out of place and she found herself pushing it back into place. She wasn’t about to get her hair a mess only two hours after arriving at prom.

The girl’s left the bathroom at some point and Annabeth was alone, trying to fix the small things about her that she could manage to fix when she heard the door open again and she turned her head around and saw Piper McLean walk in through the bathroom door, looking directly at Annabeth. She shut the door behind her and locked it.

Annabeth lowered her hands from her hair and she looked at her friend-  _ex_  friend in surprise that she had even came to prom. She was the one who hated the idea of prom the most in their friend group. Calling it a party for pretentious prissies or whatever.

She wasn’t even dressed for prom, in fact she…

Annabeth felt her back go stiff. “What are you doing here?” Annabeth asked, an edge in her voice.

Piper rolled her eyes and stalked over to Annabeth, her leather jacket rubbing against itself, her hands in her pocket. It fit her well and Annabeth could see from the opposite end of the bathroom where there was another set of mirrors the back of the jacket she wore. The words SPQR written out neatly with a laurel wreath around it.

Piper may have once been her friend, she was an enemy now though. A dangerous one, and Annabeth had to be careful. The self defense she had been teaching herself over the years behind her father’s back came into mind at that moment and Annabeth found herself analyzing Piper and her stance. She almost didn’t look like Piper in that damned leather jacket, but it was her. With the purple poodle skirt and the braided hair. It was  _undeniably_  Piper. The cool vacant expression made Annabeth take the tiniest step back and it made Piper smirk.

“Prom is for everyone,” she said. “Am I not allowed to go?”

“Prom is also meant for you to dress up.” Annabeth’s eyes looked Piper up and down. “Clearly, ya got the wrong memo, this ain’t a Halloween party.”

Piper’s teeth gritted together and her eyes darkened a bit. “Halloween getup?” she hissed out. “Did you really just call this that?” Piper laughed, humorlessly. “Look at you, already gaining that shit of a humor your  _boyfriend_  has.”

Annabeth felt offended at Piper’s statement. Percy had a  _great_  humor.

“What doya want?” Annabeth asked quietly. “If you’re just here to call me ugly in my dress just say it and get it over with already. Percy is waiting for me.”

Piper’s eyes flared a bit in anger. “Percy? He is your  _concern_. You know Annabeth,” Piper laughed, no humor in that little noise, “I have known you so much longer than you have ever known Percy Jackson. What’s your deal? I thought best friends forever were supposed to be best friends forever.”

“Yeah,” Annabeth’s voice grew an edge to it and she glared at Piper, angry. Angry at just how much of a hypocrite she was, at how much of a liar she was. “And I thought best friends weren’t supposed to keep secrets from each other.”

Piper’s gaze softened and she looked at Annabeth silently, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

“Percy told me,” Annabeth said, “how you are the actual leader of SPQR along with Reyna. I thought we were friends Piper and you kept this huge secret from me. If you were this angry with them I could’ve helped you understand. And not that we’re on the topic,” (Annabeth was  _fuming_ ) “Jason isn’t the bad guy. In fact, he is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met but you are to blinded by your hatred for The Olympians to even try and understand that.”

“ _Don’t_ ,” Piper said. “Don’t talk about Jason.”

“I get to talk about whoever I want because he’s my friend-“

“No you don’t!” Piper screeched and grabbed Annabeth’s dress fabric and pulled her close and their faces were only inches away from one another and Annabeth could practically feel the girl’s breath against her own lips. “He isn’t your  _friend_! Don’t you get that The Olympians are the  _enemy_. They’re just using you. Annie, you’re too smart to be with them. You’re too smart to have fallen for Percy  _fucking_  Jackson.”

Annabeth could practically feel the anger that was radiating off of the girl and Annabeth felt the urge to get away from Piper but she felt herself beginning to get just as angry. That just wasn’t  _fair_  the Piper got to act this way. Why couldn’t she had just been  _happy_  for Annabeth and just  _dropped_  this conversation and be mature?

“And you're an idiot,” Annabeth seethed, unable to control her own anger, “for choosing SPQR over me.”

Piper’s face went into shock white and she stared at Annabeth wide eyed. For a second, the blonde was more than positive that she had won the argument and maybe she had knocked some sense into her friend. Maybe Piper could just drop this ridiculousness and her clouded judgement of The Olympians could finally go away, they could be friends again and convince Reyna to drop her reign.

Of course, Annabeth had thought that right before Piper slammed her head into the vanity, the mirror shattering and Annabeth being knocked into unconsciousness.


	22. Icy Water

For as much as Percy liked to think that he was mature, he really wasn’t. Deep down in his heart he still hand the mind of a fifteen year old boy and when Leo said any jokes regarding ass and dicks, he always ended up cracking up. Him and Leo were usually the  _only_  ones who ended up laughing. Frank always just looked really uncomfortable and Jason just looked disappointed in the friends he decided to spend all his time around.

At some point, Calypso excused herself along with Frank’s date Hazel. Hazel had sort of been a surprise to all the boys but they had expected it to happen. Hazel was a freshman girl who usually spent most of her time at the opposing school. She was related to Nico and was prone to getting extremely racists comments because of the color of her skin.

Though, nobody here seemed to be making any of those comments. A lot of students at Goode High School were from a diverse background and there was hardly any need for people to make any comments about someone’s race because than one of their friends would come up and smack them in the back of the head. Hazel herself had been surprised when no one seemed surprised she had just arrived at the dance, but then again, she was with Frank Zhang. Frank was frankly the most intimidating guy in Percy’s group.

“C’mon guys,” Jason said with a small chuckle, his eyes flicking to the other side of the gymnasium where Nico and WIll were just sitting on the bleachers and seeming to just talk amongst each other. “Cut it with the jokes. You’re just making the gals uncomfortable.”

“Cal is used to it,” Leo pointed out and it made Percy grin and elbow him. Leo did not mind letting it know to his girlfriend that he still had the mind of a twelve year old when it came to his humor. “And Frank, Hazel is too innocent. Ya both are perfect for each other!”

Frank blushed and chose to ignore Leo. For whatever reason, the two of them had beef for each other. Percy figured that Frank simply found Leo very annoying which was a very valid reason to dislike Leo. Leo did talk a lot which sort of painted him in a bad light. It often made people question how the hell Calypso had managed to fall for his very loud and immature personality.

Then again, how the hell did Annabeth fall for an idiot like Percy who couldn’t even pass their math class?

Percy had been about to say something else to the guys, to tease Frank a bit when he suddenly heard a scream and all the talking and mingling that had been going on in the gymnasium had ceased and everyone turned their heads to where they heard it come from. The music was cut off and no one moved for a long moment. Leo inhaled sharply beside him.

“That was Cal,” he whispered and bolted off.

Percy decided that this was probably not the moment to make the comment on how Leo knew her  _scream_.

Frank ran right after him, knowing that Hazel had gone off with Calypso. At first, Percy wasn’t too concerned but then it struck him that Annabeth still hadn’t returned from the bathroom and he watched as a few teachers were walking out of the gym to the source of the commotion.

“Hey man,” Jason said, a hint of concern in his voice. “Isn’t Annabeth still in the bathroom?”

Percy casted him a side long glance before he nodded his head once and he started walking along quickly out of the gymnasium. There was a lot of commotion as he emerged and he could see Calypso with Leo eyes wide. Percy felt his pulse quicken and the eighteen year old started shoving people with his shoulders as he moved forward and saw the girls bathroom open and froze seeing Annabeth laying on the floor of the girls’ bathroom. Blood was running down the side of her temple on the floor. One of the mirrors in the bathroom was broken and there was clearly a place where Annabeth’s head had been bashed into.

The teacher who was kneeled by her, checking her pulse was saying something to Percy but he wasn’t paying enough attention to process her words and he walked over to the girl and knelt down by his girlfriend and cupped the girl’s cheek. Her face was pale and she was knocked out cold. Her dress was wrinkled and Percy noticed that. Annabeth  _never_  wrinkled her clothes.

“ _Percy_.” He looked up quietly to find himself locking eyes with his stepfather Paul Blofis. Percy had forgotten he had been overlooking the dance. “We’re going to take her to the hospital. She’s going to be okay.” He had a fatherly tone that Percy could only have  _wished_  his own father could give him once in a while. Paul was worried for Percy, Paul was worried for  _Annabeth_.

“No,” Percy blurted out suddenly and shook his head twice and gently lifted Annabeth in his arms. “I’ll take her. She’s already lost enough blood.”

“Percy-”

“Paul,” Percy glared at his stepfather. “I’m taking her. Find out who did this. As soon as you do, tell me. Because I promise you, they are going to regret  _ever_ hurting Annabeth.”

____

Percy refused to leave Annabeth’s bedside while she was in the hospital room.

Annabeth had not woken up since she arrived at the hospital the previous night. Percy had made the house call once they were at the hospital to her parents and they had promptly came as well, worried about their daughter. Frederick had told Percy that he didn’t have to say and that they would call him once Annabeth woke up, but he had refused and said he wanted to be there with her. They chose not to try and change Percy’s mind and allowed him to stay.

It was late morning and Annabeth’s parents had left to go and grab some breakfast and leaving Percy alone with Annabeth. Percy could sense that they weren’t  _completely_  comfortable with him around especially because he was an Olympian but they didn’t seem like they minded him alone with Annabeth all that much either. Percy had already had proved himself to be trustworthy and they had no reason to completely distrust him.

The Olympians weren’t all bad and Percy wanted to prove that. He never wanted to be seen as the bad guy, he was supposed to be the good guy but all anyone seemed to think was that he was just going to blow up at some point. He couldn’t even find the balls to kill Octavian and someone else did it by  _accident_  and he still felt guilty over it. Percy pretty sure that meant that he wasn’t  _all_  bad.

Percy sat by Annabeth’s bed, leaning over against the hospital bed and twirling her blonde curls between his fingers and he just kept admiring her. Even though her head was bandaged and there was an apparent bruise forming on her cheek, Percy still found her ridiculously beautiful.

Her breathing was slow and steady and Percy smiled softly and he leaned over and pressed a light kiss onto the girl’s cheek before sitting back in his chair and letting her blonde hair fall between his fingers and pulled his hand back.

A part of him wanted to head back home just to tell his mom that he was okay, but he knew that Paul had already relayed the message. He knew for a fact there was no denying that his mom was going to make a surprise appearance at some point to bring Annabeth a shitload of candy in hopes that she feels better. It was just something that his mother would do because she always felt like she owed it to people to always make them smile no matter the cost. His mother was just really amazing like that.

Annabeth’s eyes fluttered open suddenly, very lightly and the seventeen year old girl winced at the fluorescent lights shining down on her and she moved her arm to cover her eyes from the light. Percy blinked once and he smiled a bit and sighed in relief upon seeing his girlfriend awake. “Morning, sleepy head,” he mumbled softly.

Annabeth shifted her head and she looked over at Percy and she furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion. “Percy?” she asked. She sat up in the hospital bed silently and brought down her ar, She rubbed her eyes, trying to rub away the sleepiness from her eyes before bringing down her hands. “Where… am I?”

“The hospital,” Percy answered. “Do ya… remember anything?”

“Um.” Annabeth looked confused, like she wasn’t really sure what was going on still. Percy cut her some slack, he was already interrogating her when she  _just_  woke up. “I thought we were at prom…  _why_  am I in the hospital?” Percy’s words seemed to have finally hit her and woke her up. She put a hand to her head and winced pulling her hand back.

“That why I asked ya, do ya remember anything from last night?” Percy was biting back a grin.

“Percy, babe, I just no. Why am I here-” She blinked again and something passed across her eyes, a realization of the sort and she just stared at Percy silently. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Piper.”

Percy felt his blood run cold. “Piper?” he asked, fear seeming to run through him at the thought of Piper having been the one to have hurt Annabeth. “Piper did that?”

Annabeth gently brought her hand back up to her head and lightly touched it, wincing a bit at the touch. She seemed lost in thought and it was clear that there were gears churning in her head like she was trying her hardest to recall what had gone down the night before. “Yes…” she mumbled softly. “I’d gone to the bathroom and Piper came in when I was at the vanity.” Annabeth lowered her hand and let it fall to her lap and her eyes landed on her hand. “She came in and started talking… we talked about… The Olympians and… SPQR. She was  _mad…_ ”

Percy’s eyebrows furrowed. “At you?”

“I… don’t remember.” Annabeth shrugged helplessly. “I’m sorry.”

Percy shook his head quickly and reached his hand over to hers and took her hand in his own. He squeezed their hands. “Don’t be sorry. This is Piper’s fault. I’ll fuckin’ kill her for hurtin’ ya.”

Annabeth shook her head and sat back in the bed. “I just want this to stop.”

Despite the fact that it’s only been a week since Piper and Annabeth had gotten into their argument Percy could see now how much this was all bothering her. Annabeth hated this all. She missed her best friend, there was only so much that Percy could make up for in Piper’s absence.

“I know,” Percy responded. “It will… soon.”

Annabeth looked down at their hands and Percy just found himself looking at her. Her hair was messy and thrown over her shoulders. Her makeup was smeared and she looked pale. He would call the nurses to bring her some food soon. He just wanted Annabeth to relax first. Annabeth’s hand slowly tightened around Percy’s and she bit her lip softly, frowning a bit. A thought seemed to cross through her mind and Percy could see her eyes brighten up for a second with that idea.

Percy watched as Annabeth’s lips opened up and she said, “Percy?”

Percy looked at her gently, tilting his head curiously. “Yeah?”

Annabeth paused for a moment and she looked at Percy and exhaled softly. Percy wasn’t sure what he was expecting her to say, he couldn’t have imagined Annabeth ever saying the words that she did though.

“I want to join The Olympians.”


End file.
